Friday, September 29, 2006
A few articles worth reading
I like to check in from time to time at the Guardian. Next to the TLS, it's got the best reviews and bookish stories around, and this week they interview Richard Ford at his home here in Maine. I can't remember which coastal town he lives in, but it's close by, and the description could be any of three I can think of off the top of my head (working harbor, old opera house in town, great architecture, etc).
And something more up my alley, since (oh the shame) I haven't actually read anything by Richard Ford, except a short story that just did not do it for me, and yes I do know the awards he has won, my friend B just emailed me this story, from the Chronicle of Higher Education. An excerpt:
"Another novelist I once visited was Anthony Powell, who actually wrote a novel called Books Do Furnish a Room. Indeed, they did so in his case. He lived deep in the English countryside, in Somerset, in an old stone manor on many green acres. We had tea in his sitting room, which had floor-to-ceiling shelves on every wall. There were first editions by his good friend Evelyn Waugh, and countless volumes culled from his decades as a reviewer. "I can't give a book up, if it's a book that meant something to me," he said. "I always imagine I'll go back to it one day. I rarely do, but the intention is there, and I get a warm feeling among my books." I wished I could have spent days wandering in that house, as he had books in nearly every room."
Me too. I've had a softcover set of Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time for years, and this past spring at a library sale I picked up most of it in hardcover too. I'm wondering if this will be my long winter reading project this year.
And something more up my alley, since (oh the shame) I haven't actually read anything by Richard Ford, except a short story that just did not do it for me, and yes I do know the awards he has won, my friend B just emailed me this story, from the Chronicle of Higher Education. An excerpt:
"Another novelist I once visited was Anthony Powell, who actually wrote a novel called Books Do Furnish a Room. Indeed, they did so in his case. He lived deep in the English countryside, in Somerset, in an old stone manor on many green acres. We had tea in his sitting room, which had floor-to-ceiling shelves on every wall. There were first editions by his good friend Evelyn Waugh, and countless volumes culled from his decades as a reviewer. "I can't give a book up, if it's a book that meant something to me," he said. "I always imagine I'll go back to it one day. I rarely do, but the intention is there, and I get a warm feeling among my books." I wished I could have spent days wandering in that house, as he had books in nearly every room."
Me too. I've had a softcover set of Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time for years, and this past spring at a library sale I picked up most of it in hardcover too. I'm wondering if this will be my long winter reading project this year.
