So long, Ray.

Ray Bradbury
1920-2012

I always thought of Ray Bradbury as being quite a character. I enjoyed reading Something Wicked This Way Comes and Dandelion Wine. Also, the prose in The Martian Chronicles took my breath away. What a fertile, creative mind.

And then of course, Fahrenheit 451. What a nightmare tale for a lover of books. Just the idea of putting out there the temperature at which books burn makes me shudder. One should never have to know that.

The ending of the movie starring the lovely Julie Christie, with people walking about reciting over and over the book they had memorized, is one that I often think of. I wonder which book I would choose to commit to memory? What book would I want to live with every day?

I never have been able to decide.

What would you choose?

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

I took myself off to the movies this afternoon to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel starring Judi Dench, Bill Nighy (I do believe I am in love with him), Dame Maggie Smith and some other attractive folks.

Old age is not for sissies and these folks, who are at a later prime of live than some, take off for India from Britain and land at the hotel which is advertised as being for the elderly and the beautiful. They all have their own reasons for taking such a risk and some adapt to the change better than others.

The acting is superb and the scenery is a dizzying kaleidoscope of sights and sounds and colors. A very exotic locale and not to everyone's taste. Especially when they arrive and find that the photos of the hotel in the brochure don't exactly match the reality. But the young man (Dev Patel) who is the owner/manager of the hotel, a former palace, is so charming and so positive and he assures them that all will be well. Some go out to explore the city and some choose to stay within the walls of the crumbling hotel.

There aren't too many surprises in the story, but what fun it is to watch these lovely British actors bring that story to life.

The credits listed the book These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach as the basis for the movie. Random House has now issued a trade paperback under the title of the movie. I just put it on my reserve list and there are 30 people ahead of me.

Here is a bit of wisdom from the movie that the young owner gives to Judi Dench:

"Everything will be all right in the end.  If it isn't all right, then it's not the end."

Small Wonder

Am loving the essays in Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver. This novelist and essayist has degrees in biology and most of her thoughts in this book are pleas for the planet. I know she has written many fiction books but it is her essays that interest me. I have not read any of her fiction.

She grew up in rural Kentucky and has an affinity for the planet and its creatures. She and her family now live on a farm in Virginia and, according to her website, have an extensive vegetable garden and raise Icelandic sheep (who knew?). She won the Orange Prize in 2010 for her book The Lacuna.

But back to the essays. Most begin with a personal story that then leads into the heart of what she wants to say. They are informative and inspiring. Kingsolver writes with affection about hiking with her family along the San Pedro river in the desert; of seeing brightly colored macaws flying from tree to tree in the jungle; and, of her daughter Lily's experience with raising chickens.

That's the good news. The bad news is the river is drying up due to development of the lands along it. The macaws are an endangered species and she was thrilled to see them in their natural habitat against the blue sky and not through the bars of a cage in a zoo or, heaven forbid, a pet shop. Although her daughter's chickens offered free breakfast with the laying of the first egg, it also brought on a conversation about corporate farming and the injunction not to name the animals you are raising to eat.

All these pieces are written with warmth, humor, and intelligence. They will break your heart if you linger too long.

From the dilemma of whether to kill a hermit crab that has taken up residence in a perfect conch shell on the beach (they didn't) to the killings at Columbine High School, Kingsolver's essays make me stop and ponder the world and its infinite variety and consider what small steps I can take to protect it.

Crome Yellow

Aldous Huxley
1894-1963

I am reading Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley on my phone. It is an odd experience (I can only see a sentence or two on the screen), but that is okay because it is an odd book.

People are gathered at a British country house, Crome. There is the master of the house who has just finished writing a history of the manor; his wife who is entranced with metaphysical goings on of the time; their niece Anne; a young writer/poet who is in love with Anne; a painter; an uncle, I think; and, another young woman.

There really doesn't seem to be a plot. Each chapter is a conversation or a story or in one case a sermon. In one chapter the two young women have a discussion about sex. It is very short as this is in the 1920s. The master of the house reads the first chapter of his history of the house that tells the story of one of the first owners who was a dwarf. He populated the house with dwarf servants and found an Italian dwarf wife. All was well until they had a son who grew up to be tall. Many humiliations ensued including the attack of the mother by a huge bull mastiff that the son brought home one summer. Finally, distraught with the lack of respect by the son, both parents committed suicide. 

That is how odd this book is but it is so witty too.

Here is the part describing the vicar's study:

Mr. Bodiham was sitting in his study at the Rectory. The

nineteenth-century Gothic windows, narrow and pointed, admitted the
light grudgingly; in spite of the brilliant July weather, the room was
sombre. Brown varnished bookshelves lined the walls, filled with row
upon row of those thick, heavy theological works which the second-hand
booksellers generally sell by weight. The mantelpiece, the over-mantel,
a towering structure of spindly pillars and little shelves, were brown
and varnished. The writing-desk was brown and varnished. So were the
chairs, so was the door. A dark red-brown carpet with patterns covered
the floor. Everything was brown in the room, and there was a curious
brownish smell.

In the midst of this brown gloom Mr. Bodiham sat at his desk.

A brownish smell? Too funny.

Anna Quindlen: In Depth on C-Span

Anna Quindlen

I spent three hours with author Anna Quindlen this afternoon. She was the guest on C-Span's Book TV In Depth program. What an intelligent, well-spoken woman. I wanted to invite her to lunch.

She spoke of abortion, why she left the Catholic Church, the feminist movement, books, writing, alcoholism and aging. If those topics sound a bit depressing, believe me she was not gloom and doom. She is very personal, honest, and engaging.

Quindlen has written ten non-fiction books and six novels. She was a columnist with the New York Times and also Newsweek magazine. She now writes full time from her home in New York City. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992.

If you are not familiar with In Depth, here is the format: The first Sunday of the month the interviewer, it used to be Brian Lamb who has now retired, spends three hours with the guest author and takes calls and emails from the viewers. I find it to be very relaxing as the interviewer is not abrasive nor does he interrupt. He doesn't ask and answer his question in the same breath.

Quindlen's most recent book is a memoir titled Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake. I am now the 72nd person in the reserve line for the book at the library. I have read her Imagined London in which she serves up a portrait of this literary city that she fell in love with through books before she ever set foot in Piccadilly.

When I had a television I used to watch Book TV religiously. But the one-eyed monster was unceremoniously banished from my home years ago. In connection with the Grand Southern Literary Tour I discovered an In Depth interview online with Shelby Foote. I had seen it in 2001 and just rewatched it this past week.

That is when I also discovered that I can now watch Book TV, and indeed other C-Span channels, live on my computer. So here I was today carrying my laptop with me to the kitchen and the bathroom so I wouldn't miss a minute of Anna's interview.

Another book of hers that interests me is How Reading Changed My Life. I don't know how I have missed this one that was published in 1998. It is also on my reserve list at the library.

You can watch this program and others like it at c-span.org. Happy hunting. I have already picked out a few more that I want to see.

Grand Southern Literary Tour Bonanza

I hate messing with the computer. I spent two hours trying to sync my new phone with my PC so I could transfer this photo of my treasures from the Grand Southern Literary Tour.

I finally gave up and just e-mailed it to myself. Then I spent another bunch of time trying to get the photo posted to the blog.

Sigh. I could have finished half a book in that time.

Anyway, here are the books bought.  From the bottom up:

Writers of the American South: Their Literary Landscapes by Hugh Howard - Lovely text and photographs by Roger Straus III of Southern writers and their homes. It was through this book that we discovered Shelby Foote's house and burial spot. A treasure.

Calico Joe by John Grisham - My first ever Grisham book and it is signed by him. It is about baseball which is why I bought it.

The American Plague by Molly Caldwell Crosby - This story of the yellow fever was suggested by Jorja the historian at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis. Crosby is a Memphis writer.

The Points of My Compass by E.B. White - I have this in paperback and was glad to find this hardcover edition.

The Beach House by James Patterson - I have not read any of Patterson's mysteries. This one was free from Off Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi.

The Eye of the Story by Eudora Welty - These are essays and reviews. The Professor across the street told me that her essay here on place is the best he has ever read.

Every Day by the Sun by Dean Faulkner Wells - This is written by William Faulkner's niece.  She lived with the Faulkner's after her father, William's brother, died in a place wreck.

Lanterns and Lances by James Thurber - I can never pass up a book by this wonderful humorist.

Small Wonders by Barbara Kingsolver - A book of essays. Her thoughts on why she doesn't have a television are totally in sync with mine. It was through that essay (published elsewhere) that I discovered this book. I think I may have checked it out of the library years ago but I never got around to reading it. I was glad to find a copy for my own shelves.

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren - A Kentucky author. I have never read this book or indeed anything else by him. But I did see his library, desk, and typewriter on our stop at the Kentucky Museum and Special Collections Library at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. I was very impressed with the range of subjects in his collection. What an intellect.

Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne - No explanation needed. A perfectly fine, used, hardback edition.

A journal with a typewriter on the cover. I couldn't resist.

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg - This is one of my favorite books about writing. I already have a copy and have no idea why I bought another one. It is a different edition, though.

Derby Day and Other Adventures by A. Edward Newton - A delightful discovery which has led me to read his Amenities of Book-Collecting.

What Now? by Ann Patchett - Her commencement speech to the graduating class of Sarah Lawrence College, her alma mater, in 2006. I just read it this morning. A lovely, funny address. It is not just for college graduates as we all have many "What Now?" moments in our lives. A signed copy.

Great Essays edited by Houston Peterson - A collection of 50 essays for 50 cents. "Nuff said.

The topper of the pile, that sweet little journal featuring shelves of books on its cover, is the autograph book. All the 'stars' that I met on the trip were asked to sign and leave a message. 

What fun I had pulling these volumes out from the shopping bags. I found other mementos as well: bookmarks, a coffee mug from the Fairview Inn in Jackson, a book bag from Square Books, and pamphlets from many of the places I visited.

A nice little recap of the Tour.

Harry Elkins Widener

Harry Elkins Widener

I have come to the final chapter in Newton's Amenities of  Book-Collecting. In these last pages, Mr. Newton tells the sad story of Harry Elkins Widener, the son of George D. Widener of Philadelphia. George was financially prominent, Newton writes, having taken over his father's business, the Philadelphia Traction Company. The family lived in a 110-room mansion known as Lynnewood Hall in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

Harry Widener was George's oldest son. He was born in 1885 and attended Harvard University. While at Harvard, he began to show an interest in book-collecting. Soon after he graduated in 1907, book-collecting became a serious matter for the young man.

Newton writes about his library:

"It is but a collection of perhaps three thousand volumes; but they were selected by a man of almost unlimited means, with rare judgment and an instinct for discovering the best. Money alone will not make a bibliophile, although, I confess, it develops one."

One evening, Harry confessed to his friend Newton that he didn't want to be remembered only as a book-collector. "I want to be remembered in connection with a great library, and I do not see how it is going to be brought about."

As the Fates would have it, Harry Elkins Widener needn't have worried about how it would happen. He and his father were both passengers on the Titanic and were drowned in the Atlantic on April 15, 1912. His mother, Eleanor Elkins Widener, survived. She made a $3.5 million donation and had erected in his memory the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University. It was dedicated in 1914. Here his collection rests.

Today, the Widener Library, is the centerpiece of the Harvard University Library system. With its 15.6 million volumes, it is the largest university library system in the world.