Category Archives: bibliophile

Books Read – 2020

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The Sanctuary of Books


1) Can You Forgive Her?

Trollope, Anthony
2) The Mayor of CasterbridgeHardy, Thomas
3) Under the Greenwood TreeHardy, Thomas
4) The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal WestMcCullough, David
5) A Backward GlanceWharton, Edith
6) Unleavened BreadGrant, Robert
7) A Guilty Thing Surprised (Inspector Wexford, #5)Rendell, Ruth
8) Mason’s RetreatTilghman,Christopher
9) The Hills BeyondWolfe, Thomas
10) The Pioneers: James Fenimore CooperCooper,JamesFenimore
11) Excellent WomenPym, Barbara
12) When We Were OrphansIshiguro, Kazuo
13) The Genuine Article (The Sheriff Chick Charleston Mysteries Book 2)Guthrie Jr., A.B.
14) Mandela’s Way: Lessons for an Uncertain AgeStengel, Richard
15) Dombey and SonDickens, Charles
16) A New England boyhoodHale, Edward Everett
17) The Big Bad City (87th Precinct, #49)McBain, Ed
18) No Second WindGuthrie Jr., A.B.
19) A High Wind in JamaicaHughes, Richard
20) The Vicar of WakefieldGoldsmith, Oliver
21) Nocturne (87th Precinct, #48)McBain, Ed
22) Murders at Moon DanceGuthrie Jr., A.B.
23) Coming Up for AirOrwell, George
24) Keep the Aspidistra FlyingOrwell, George
25) Burmese DaysOrwell, George
26) Benjamin Franklin: An American LifeIsaacson, Walter
27) Twice ShyFrancis, Dick
28) The Eustace DiamondsTrollope, Anthony
29) The WoodlandersHardy, Thomas
30) The Belton EstateTrollope, Anthony
31) Miller’s ValleyQuindlen, Anna
32) Phineas Redux, Vol. 1Trollope, Anthony
33) Phineas Redux, Volume 2Trollope, Anthony
34) The American SenatorTrollope, Anthony
35) The Turn of the ScrewJames, Henry

For the love of books!

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I’m sure there is such a thing as fulfilling lives, without books. I’m equally sure I’d want no part of any of them. Various narratives I’ve read over the years see learning from books (“book learning” being the often said with distain expression) as some kind of sheltered, limiting, life, as if the mighty band of bookworms worldwide spend their lives incarcerated (without mercy) in reading chairs, no doubt in a windowless rooms.

A voice inside my head cries out, “That’s a lot of hooey!”

I could not live without books in my life may not be a literal truth for me, but it comes damned close.

Why I write

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Let me make one thing clear on the front end of this piece: why someone writes is their business. No artist of any kind is under any obligation to explain why he or she creates. Responding with, I’m sorry, but that’s none of your business, is a just response. It is no one’s business.

As far as I’m concerned, whatever it takes a writer to put words on a page is fine with me. First off, the page can be a hard place to get to and, once there, the necessary experience of being fully present in the moment can be heavy lifting at times. Its the words, the writing that I care most about.  An actor who hopes to win an Oscar is no more betraying the craft of acting than a writer who hopes to win a Pulitzer is betraying the craft of writing. Wanting or hoping for an accolade is not a betrayal of creative purity. To think it is is misguided in the best light, and rubbish in any other light.

I have no problem explaining, to some extent, why I write. For some years now my short answer has been pretty much the same: Sometimes I write because I want to, always I write because I have to. I suppose I could polish that sentence into finer stuff, but I’m leaving it as it is because it was born that way.

It is the sanctuary of language itself that brings me to the page, writing or reading. As far back as I can remember, books and writing have provided sanctuaries I could depend on. Even when I was homeless they were they. I am not by nature a thief, but, when I was on the street, I had no problem at all pinching paperback books off those always-squeaky! book racks in drugstores.

Language is a living thing for me. Words are living beings; they have  shape, movement, sound; they each have their own pulse; they can be moody. I short, words have personality, every damn one of them.

And then, of course, there is this: language is great company. I am never alone when I write or read. Like I said: Sometimes I write because I want to, always I write because I have to.

 

Books Read – 2016

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As those of you who’ve been following this blog over its 10-year life span know, I have the admittedly self-indulgent habit of publishing the list of  books I read in a given year. I would give all the gold in the world to see the list of books my parents and grandparents read. When I read a book I know someone in my family read, I know I am hiking on a trail of words they hiked before me. It’s a nice feeling. I miss them all, beyond the reach of any words ever written.

  1. The English Major, by Jim Harrison
  2. Greenwich, by Howard Fast
  3. The Sportswriter, by Richard Ford
  4. Point Counter Point, Aldous Huxley
  5. Aldous Huxley: An English Intellectual, by Nicholas Murray
  6. The Big Seven, by Jim Harrison
  7. Appointment in Samarra, by John O’Hara
  8. The Great Leader, by Jim Harrison
  9. The Summer He Didn’t Die, by Jim Harrison
  10. The African Queen, by C.S. Forester
  11. The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot, #2), by Agatha Christie
  12. Legends of the Fall, by Jim Harrison
  13. Break In (Kit Fielding, #1), by Dick Francis
  14. The River Swimmer: Novellas, by Jim Harrison
  15. The Ancient Minstrel: Novellas, by Jim Harrison
  16. Letting Go, by Philip Roth
  17. The Quiet American, by Graham Greene
  18. The Go-Between, by L.P. Hartley
  19. Everybody’s Fool, by Richard Russo
  20. A Question of Upbringing (A Dance to the Music of Time, #1), by Anthony Powell
  21. Dangerous Davies, the Last Detective,  by Leslie Thomas
  22. The A.B.C. Murders (Hercule Poirot, #13), by Agatha Christie
  23. A Buyer’s Market (A Dance to the Music of Time #2), by Anthony Powell
  24. Dangerous In Love, by Leslie Thomas
  25. The Acceptance World (A Dance to the Music of Time, #3), by Anthony Powell
  26. Can You Forgive Her?, Volume I, by Anthony Trollope
  27. At Lady Molly’s (A Dance to the Music of Time, #4), by Anthony Powell
  28. Dangerous By Moonlight, by Leslie Davies
  29. Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant (A Dance to the Music of Time, #5), by Anthony Powell
  30. What’s Become of Waring, by Anthony Powell

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Books Read – 2015

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  1. “Don’t Look Back,” by Karin Fossum
  2. “Knots and Crosses,” by Ian Rankin
  3. “He Who Fears the Wolf,” by Karin Fossum
  4. “The Indian Bride,” by Karin Fossum
  5. “The Return of the Soldier,” by Rebecca West
  6. “Bernard Malamud: A Writer’s Life,” by Phillip Davis
  7. “Black Seconds,” by Karin Fossum
  8. “The Officers’ Ward,” by Marc Dugain
  9. “When the Devil Holds the Candle,” by Karin Fossum
  10. “Bad Intentions,” by Karin Fossum
  11. “The Water’s Edge,” by Karin Fossum
  12. “The Caller,” by Karin Fossum
  13. “The Lighthouse,” by PD James
  14. “Cover Her Face,” by PD James
  15. “A Mind to Murder,” by PD James
  16. “The G File,” by Håkan Nesser
  17. “Shroud for a Nightingale,” by PD James
  18. “Unnatural Causes,” by PD James
  19. “Updike,” by Adam Begley
  20. “From Doon With Death,” by Ruth Wendell
  21. “A Man Called Ove,” by Fredrik Backman
  22. “The Storied Life of AJ Fikry,” by Gabrielle Zevin
  23. “His Family,” by Ernest Poole
  24. “Early Autumn: A Story of a Lady,” by Louis Bromfield
  25. “The Fruit of the Tree,” by Edith Wharton
  26. “The Strange Case of Miss Annie Spragg,” by Louis Bromfield
  27. “Certain People,” by Edith Wharton
  28. “A Son at the Front,” by Edith Wharton
  29. “Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street,” by Richard R. Lingeman
  30. “Edith Wharton,” by RWB Lewis
  31. “All That Is,” by James Salter
  32. “Light Years,” by James Salter
  33. “The Wright Brothers,” by David McCullough
  34. “Tortilla Flat,” by John Steinbeck
  35. “The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge,” by David McCullough
  36. “East Side Story: A Novel,” by Louis Auchincloss
  37. “Père Goriot,” by Honoré de Balzac
  38. “New England White,” by Stephen L. Carter
  39. “Last Night: Stories,” by James Salter
  40. “Dusk and Other Stories,” by James Salter
  41. “Palace Council,” by Stephen L. Carter
  42. “Jericho’s Fall,” by Stephen L. Carter
  43. “Burning the Days: Recollection,” by James Salter
  44. “Rich Man Poor Man,” by Irwin Shaw
  45. “Voices Of A Summer Day,” by Irwin Shaw
  46. “The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling,” by Henry Fielding
  47. “Our Souls at Night,” by Kent Haruf
  48. “The Road to Los Angeles,” by John Fante
  49. “Sanctuary,” by William Faulkner
  50. “Ask the Dust,” by John Fante
  51. “Dreams from Bunker Hill,” by John Fante
  52. “Redemption,” by Howard Fast