The Bookity Book & Tall Grass Salon

One book that is great, however, is Snow by Orhan Pamuk. A reporter visits a remote town in Turkey to track down the last months in the life of a now-dead poet friend of his. He has, however, stumbled into the middle of an east-meets-west conflict between pro-western intellectuals and Muslim reactionaries. It snows for the entire book, and the name of the town translates to snow in the local language. It is full of nifty writing and symbolism, most of which I'm sure was lost on me. I'm tempted to read it again someday, which is a rare honor from me since I read so slowly I don't often want to invest the time to. reread something.

Swanny, have you read Pete Dexter? Most famous, I believe, for Paris Trout, which is my least favorite of his novels. Try Paperboy, Brotherly Love, or Spooner.

Good morning.

The Writer's Almanac for September 20, 2014

Ah, good old Wendell Berry. His poems rarely disappoint me and this one is satisfying (after a few days of not-so.) I was tickled at the Emerson echo (I think it was Emerson who wrote the one I'm thinking of... have to check -- ETA: wrong, it was Wordsworth I was thinking of) and I wonder if "desert" is meant, or is a typo. But that didn't at all detract from my pleasure in reading this.

Birthdays today for Maxwell Perkins, famous editor, most notably of Thomas Wolfe, and Upton Sinclair, whose story is instructive. I didn't know he came close to winning the governorship of California.

Well, there are a lot of things I didn't and don't know!

Thank goodness.



Have a great day, all.

LOVED the poem. "It is a quiet I love, though my life / too often drives me through it deaf." Leaf blowing time has started in my neighborhood - it's the one thing I hate about where we live...the damnable noise on an early beautiful Saturday.

I just read The Paris Wife and Maxwell Perkins also worked with Hemingway.

Thanks for the book recommends all! I read and loved Snow. I'll take a look at the others.

Hi.

The almanac arrived late, and Sunday seems a slow day in general in here, but thought I'd post it:

The Writer's Almanac for September 21, 2014

The poem is one of my personal "best loved poems" -- it's always nice to see it show up.

Today has some interesting anniversaries: The "Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus" editorial was published, the New York Times premiered the Op. Ed. Page, and the creator of Penguin Books was born. He just wanted something good to read on the train.

Also born today was H.G. Wells, and Girolama Savonarola who preached against tyranny.

Did you ever wonder why it was nine bean rows and not eight, or ten?

I guess euphony is the reason but maybe not.

Hope everyone will check out the 2014 AW Poetry Review Contest -- especially those who feel they don't know much about poetry. Your opinion counts too! The poems we've been given to review are pretty interesting, IMO.

Kylabelle said:

Did you ever wonder why it was nine bean rows and not eight, or ten?

I guess euphony is the reason but maybe not.

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My guess is that the beans rows were planted in sets of three so that you could reach across the outer rows to the center one from either side to harvest the beans. Three rows spaced one foot apart would make a good set of rows with walking alleys between. Nine rows would then be in three sets with two walking alleys, which is a pretty efficient use of space.

This calls to mind the "skip row" cotton we grow in the South: plant two rows, skip one, plant two, skip one, etc. The extra sunlight provided by the skipped row causes the plants to produce more cotton overall than planting every row. Not relevant to the poem at all, but it never ceases to impress me.

Chris, I thank you for that answer, that is so cool! and probably dead on correct too.

Agronomy is by no means an easy topic! I'm trying to learn it more formally to put some scientific basis to what I observe, but also I need a broader knowledge base for what I hope is my next job. Just finding a good basic textbook is a challenge since the topic is so wide (and contentious when you get into GMOs, organic farming and especially in international development!).

Best piece of advice I got during Peace Corps training was "find out why they are doing what they are doing first before you start suggesting stuff." Nobody on the planet in the history of mankind has ever done anything without a reason they thought at some level was right. Once you know why they are doing it that way, you can work with their interior logic toward a better solution, if one exists. Then you can decide which tools are right for them. That saved me a lot of frustration and works wonders in other aspects of my life.

Chris, that's a very wise approach. I happen to believe that if that approach had been taken in most traditional agriculture economies, we'd not have nearly so much starvation and refugee crises as we have now. Of course, most of the decisions were not taken with a desire to actually help anything but the bottom line of some multinational corporation.

/soapbox

Okay, here's the almanac:

The Writer's Almanac for September 22, 2014

It's a big one today and I'm not going to say much about it because I have a project outside that is calling to me!

Happy Equinox! The Emancipation Proclamation was signed on this date, and Nathan Hale was executed. Other events of note: L.A. got a freeway upgrade, Rosamund Pilcher was born, as was Michael Faraday.

The poem is contemplative and musing, and I have no patience for it right now, catch you later!

Today's poem was a bit light, even given the last couple lines.

I bopped over to the Poetry Review contest and read the poems. One I loved, but I'm not clear how the contest works. A critique is written and then sent in PDF form to the moderator? Sorry for my confusion - I'll see if I can sort it out.

Rosamund Pilcher - I've never read anything of hers until now - I'm trying to learn French and saw a paperback "Neige in Avril" by her. I thought maybe she wrote simply enough I could read it. For the most part I can. Not literary , but perfect for what I need.

Have a good day everyone. I'm off to sweep the back patio - needing exercise...

Swanny, I know poetinahat is watching the discussion thread really closely, so you might post your questions about how it works there: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=296650

I believe you have it right about how it works, except it's PM, not PDF. Just send your reviews in a private message to poetinahat. In the main thread (linked in my sigline) he describes exactly how to format the message so your entry will not be lost in a shuffle.

I am not sure why he decided to call it "review" rather than "critique" except for the fact that we're looking at finished and already published poems.

Regarding Rosamund Pilcher, I read The Shell Seekers and enjoyed it very much. No, not literary, but very well done with quite interesting characters.

Here's for today:
The Writer's Almanac for September 23, 2014

I really enjoyed this poem, especially where it went. Expansive.

Today is Bruce Springsteen's birthday. It's also the anniversary of the return of Lewis and Clark from their famous expedition, after everyone pretty much thought they'd died.

Ray Charles was also born on this date. And another expedition was lost at sea with all its treasure: The Merchant Royal, in 1641, lost with all her treasure and many lives. Though the wreck was close to the coast, the ship has never been found, though one discovery initially claimed to be this one. Lots of coin under the sea!

Maryn said:

I'm a huge Springsteen fan. He's got the energy of someone a good twenty years younger; by the end of a typical concert, I wish he'd finish so I could go home, because I'm just wrung out. My favorite song is one not typical of his overall style: Meeting Across the River. Although I like Jungleland a lot, too.

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I should really get more into Springsteen. The only song of his I have is "The River", given to me by my ex back in high school. Apropos.

I adore Ray Charles, and Springsteen I never quite got what all the fuss was about.

I also have a vague memory of his having publicly taken some really retrogressive political position and done concerts for whatever it was, but my memory is dim and unreliable on this score (as on many others.)

I love Ray Charles, but I have to treat Springsteen the way I do Bob Dylan: recognize his huge contribution to the music world while not caring much for the music. I can take about fifteen minutes of Bruce, which on a live album is about 2/3 of a song. It's good stuff until it all starts to sound the same to me.

I love Springsteen, though my affection is limited by the fact he never made an album even close to Born to Run. Not a bad song on that LP, not even a mediocre one. It starts great; it ends great, the B-side kicks off just right. I'd put that up as one of the all-time great albums, every bit as good as Blood on the Tracks. Other albums of his are good -- Nebraska, the River, the one he did after 9-11, but none even approach BtR, so I get frustrated and go back to the one that's a masterpiece.

It's like I am with Tom Waits. He's down a lot of really neat work, but none of them are close to as good as Closing Time or Heart of Saturday Night. Or the Grateful Dead with America Beauty. The centerpieces of great careers. They do a lot of good work, but I always end up back at the pinacle.

Nice post, Matt. "Back at the pinacle." I like that.

Here's for today:

The Writer's Almanac for September 24, 2014

The poem today has a neat premise but I wanted more from it at the end than I got.

Birthdays today are stellar. I'm surprised the Almanac has so little to say about Jim Henson, who was an amazing man.

Birthdays also for Eavan Boland (don't believe I've read her work), Horace Walpole, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I love the quoted statement, "I speak with the authority of failure." I can really relate to that.

Jim Henson was one of a kind to be sure. One of the few regrets/missed opportunities of my time in Mississippi is not visiting the muppet museum in Greenville. The story is Henson got the inspiration for Kermit by listening to the frogs in the canal when he was a kid. The Muppet Show was a huge influence on me.growing up, and watching the DVDs now I can see the origins of much of my sense of humor.

I, and I think many writers of mainstream/contemporary, owe a huge debt of gratitude to Fitzgerald, and I was surprised that he only completed four novels. I recently read Beautiful and the Damned as well as Sinclair Lewis' Main Street and find them as fresh (Main Street more so) as many contemp novels coming out today.

Kylabelle said:

Birthdays also for Eavan Boland (don't believe I've read her work)

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We're reading her later in my poetry class. She seems cool.

Chris P said:

I, and I think many writers of mainstream/contemporary, owe a huge debt of gratitude to Fitzgerald

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I know I do.

Kuwi, let us know how you feel about her work when you get to it?

Good morning, lots going on in Almanacland today.

The Writer's Almanac for September 25, 2014

The poem is quite tick-tock, but there is a perfect degree of unexpected phrase turn to keep my interest and I like where it goes. Neat!

Congress pass the Bill of Rights, Shel Silverstein was born, as was William Faulkner, and, always, other things happened too.