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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

This and That

Not having a lot to say tonight, I'm making the picture big. Also, something tells me that today was the peak of our Leelanau color: storms predicted for tonight and on through the week will no doubt strip many trees of their leaves.

Blogging is something like talking on the radio, as I recall it from my high school days as a volunteer take-a-request telephone answerer and radio announcer. Sometimes no one would call in, and we would make up requests. "The next song is for Nancy from Glenn, who can't wait to see her tomorrow in social studies." Stuff like that. We wondered if anyone was out there listening. I mean, how would you know? If anyone is out there reading tonight (or in future, whenever you might happen across this, by accident or design), and if you belong to a book club, I'd appreciate hearing from you with a list of books your group is reading. I'll be speaking at the Kalamazoo Public Library in the spring on the subject of book clubs and what they read and would like to have as diverse a list of lists as possible. Thanks in advance!

Obviously, I haven't resolved the problem of Blogger not liking the Mac/Safari combination, which is why there are no links in my postings. Guess I need to go researching and see what other Mac users have done to get around the trouble.

5 comments:

Susan said...

I'm reading, Pamela! I check in every morning and night. I'm not in a book club, but I'm reading that new biography of Alice Waters (sister to our own Ellen Pison), which I find a little "gooey" with adulation. Because of the rains this week, I'm wanting a book -- perhaps a novel -- that prominently features rain. Ideas?

P. J. Grath said...

“Rain: nobody has done justice to rain in literature yet: surely a subject for a Scot. But then you can't do rain in that ledger-book style that I am trying for - or between a ledger-book and an old ballad.” Robert Louis Stevenson wrote that in a letter to Henry James. Is it still true? I don’t know, but how about turning the tables and reading about drought? Jill Ker Conway, in THE ROAD FROM COORAIN (admittedly, not a novel), writes: “In 1941, the only rain of the year was a damp cold rain with high wind which came during the lambing season in May and June and carried off many ewes and their newborn lambs. After that there were no significant rainfalls for five years.” The flat style somehow underlines the enormity of the horror. She goes on, “The unfolding of a drought of these dimensions has a slow and inexorable quality. The weather perpetually holds out hope. Storm clouds gather. Thunder rolls by. But nothing happens. Each year as the season for rain approaches, people begin to look hopefully up at the sky. It mocks them with a few showers, barely enough to lay the dust. That is all.” A reader not already thankful for a cozy day of rain is pushed forcefully by this chapter toward gratitude.

P. J. Grath said...

Okay, Susan, the sun has been out a bit, but you know there's more rain coming, and the book I've landed upon for this weather is STORM, by George R. Stewart. It is a novel but also full of his meteorological researches. I have two copies and am taking one home myself tonight.

Laurie said...

"The next song is for Nancy from Glenn, who can't wait to see her tomorrow in social studies." That kind of fabrication probably boosted your listener count ... I would have been dying to hear that someone was waiting for ME in social studies!

I do check in frequently, and am enjoying this opportunity to keep more in touch with you!

P. J. Grath said...

I'll say it again, Laurie: You're a peach!