This morning I heard robins near the house. Pretty-pretty-pretty, they seem to boast proudly. Sparrows trill in the popple grove, crows call raucously from a distance, the heart-lifting sound of a sandhill crane comes from far overhead, and the woods rings with sounds of the busy cleanup crew, woodpeckers in dead and dying trees.
Spring’s arrival varies from year to year and can be quite teasing with its advances and retreats. We may yet have another blizzard. But if we do have a big snow in April, as I used to tell the Artist, “It will be a spring blizzard!” And sooner or later the seasonal page will be turned for good, and there will be only memories with which to answer the inevitable Up North spring question, “How was your winter?”
Mornings are easier and more pleasant with less cold wind and more birdsong as Sunny Juliet with her nose, I with my eyes, both of us with our ears explore a morning world that never grows stale. No two mornings –no two moments! -- are ever identical.
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| Reading her morning newspaper |
I’ll keep this short today. One bookish thing on my mind is the idea of a ‘page-turner.’ You know, a book you can’t stop reading until the end. It strikes me now (and I have not taken time to develop this thought) that page-turners are of at least two different sorts. Some are consumables: That kind of page-turner is like a deep tub of popcorn at a movie theatre, a near-mindless reading binge. Such books serve a purpose in our lives. They provide a day’s distraction and relief. Tomorrow we will be ready to face our own life situations again.
The second kind of page-turner is a life-changer, or at least a mind- or heart-changer, as well as a page-turner. We find ourselves totally immersed in a new world, seeing life through freshly opened eyes. Even familiar elements encountered in such a book evoke a new surge of love from us.
Those in the second group are likely to burrow into our lives for good, as precious as old friends of whom we never tire. At least, that’s how I see things this morning on the eve of the Ides of March. How about you? And what's going on in your neck of the woods?
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| Will there be more? Stay tuned! |
7 comments:
Beautiful pictures, ideas, and writing, especially that stunning first paragraph. Loved your ideas above page-turners too. Have you read Tana French's new series starting with The Searcher and followed by The Hunter, just out. They definitely fit in your second category.
No, I have not read Tana French. My musings on page-turners were inspired by a Louise Erdrich novel,THE PAINTED DRUM, and, recently, INDIAN HORSE, by the late Richard Wagamese. Also, thinking about how someone asked me only days ago, "How can you re-read books when there are so many new ones?" I mentioned what I call 'comfort books,' but later I thought, Why would I spend another evening with an old friend when I could be getting to know someone new? -- How can you ask???
I often reread books for comfort or for joy or perhaps I charged through too quickly on first encounter and want now the time to savor. And every year I reread at least two Austens to preserve my sanity.
Austen, Proust, Joyce among the classics that I revisit time and time again. (I know Austen's novels almost by heart) Bruce Catton's memoir, WAITING FOR THE MORNING TRAIN, and his MICHIGAN (history) are two more I have read several times. Among the living, Ellen Airgood and Bonnie Jo Campbell are two Michigan writers today whose work I also turn to time and time again, and I have a feeling now that Louise Erdrich will be joining that group. Simenon takes me to Paris, and Jance puts me once again in Cochise County, Arizona. Harlan Hubbard's SHANTYBOAT; WIND IN THE WILLOWS; TWO CANOE GYPSIES -- my re-reading list is a long one, and yet I do manage to fit in new books, too.
I re read everything at 79😊. Love to Sunny 😎
I recently finished James McBride’s “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” and was very moved by this view of a Pennsylvanian poor Black part of town in 1936. A sly humor comes through even when the situations are just awful. It is personal and political, and it made me think of so many universal issues. The story of the Black American is well presented by the author. For me this is a book in the second category. Another one is by Susan Straight, “I Been in Sorrow’s Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots“ which had several characters speaking in Black accents and dialects from different islands. There is a challenge when reading that sometimes, but there’s also a pleasant view of how language is used, like it has an improvisational swing to it, like music. The story is another Black view of American life, and these people make me think and examine all parts of my beliefs, and what I have seen or what I was taught. Plus, I get to look into other people lives, others cultures.
I'm so glad you are reading Susan Strait, Jeanie. I am on a Louise Erdrich binge myself these days but do want to read the McBride novel, for sure. I too love slipping into other lives and other worlds. It is the magic of reading!
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