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Friends: almigwin, benwaugh, criels, Ganeshaka, Garp83, Joycepa, Makifat, MaryNovik, rossrice, steve_law, thewildflower, tomcatMurr

Interesting libraries: Arctic-Stranger, benwaugh, chuck_ralston, dmcolon, efeltonf, elmyra, gregfromgilbert, hasprintwillread, herschelian, JanWillemNoldus, Jaybernstein, keigu, kjhealy, lquilter, Makifat, Marshdrifter, melvinsico, peterdmark, qebo, Smiley, tamara_gm3, tomcatMurr, TomVeal

LibraryThing authors: Papalazarou (Papalaz), Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (jeffreymasson), Kieran Healy (kjhealy)

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Member: keylawk

CollectionsCookbooks (9), Your library (1,683), Wishlist (2), Currently reading (9), To read (10), All collections (1,694)

Reviews726 reviews

Tagshistory (192), anthropology (165), (165), biography (128), law practice (115), religion (114), war (101), language (97), dictionary (96), literature (94) — see all tags

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

GroupsNone

Favorite authorsGaston Bachelard, Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Kieran Healy, Julia Kristeva, E. M. Cioran, Malcolm Muggeridge, Norb. Vonnegut (Shared favorites)

About meHappily married 59 year old wounded warrior in Orange County, California. My wife is English (Sherwood Forest, Druids and Hobbits having tea...). I bring good fortune to everyone; even my enemies are rich. Brought up in the Amazon jungle, most of what I know I learned from plants and amphibians. It was the Stone Age, but we were too poor to have actual stones (!).

I would like to show ambitious people how to get away with being kind. Then again, teaching is not the suit I pursue as a Lawyer. And when I was young, hopeful Elders took the trouble to try to teach me things I never learned or used. And now I have forgotten more than I ever knew.

About my libraryApprox 5000 books: Law, Practical Sciences, History, Literature, Words/Language. Some Philosophy, and touching upon the Arts.

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS/Themes:

Seafaring/ Riparian History / Great Rivers (Argonaut);
Collective and Personal Guilt (Engines of Change);
Animals and People that look alike (morphology);
American Indian (compare Natives generally);
Futurist Studies (prediction/seering Pythia);
Religions ( Biodynamic Consciousness ) ;
Vanishing Women (desaparecida);
Museum of Life Sentences;
Stones (Famous Rocks);
Jungle, Amazon Delta;
Cave Paintings;
History of Fire;
Biography;
Cities;
War

THEMES. A kind of sleeper-theme is Conflict Resolution. I also come from the School of Slow Reading, where we learned how to not choke everything down, and as for "communicating" or "understanding", just quietly let those go too. Once you realize the utter futility, the burden of effort falls away, and the world fills with joy. Of course this is not a Theme you tell your clients or people who look to you with specific hopes.

MAUSOLEUM. Yes, LibraryThing can also be used as a living Mausoleum. Of course, I am not making the announcement, which would be "premature" [q.v. Mark Twain], and I never intend to. There is a legacy after death -- there is light, and stones and stories, and bits of information.

TAGS. I use multiple Tags a lot and try to tag every book with appropriate categories, especially if there is irony, or a Korzybski "cloud" in mind. For me, however, most words are arbitrary Zipfs, and I have no clear picture of how labeling works. Hence, a fairly large collection on Words -- writing and semiotics. I delight in Aristotelean categories, Platonic absolutes, and Derida-derived deconstructions.

SHELVING. I brutally culled the collection and corralled my impulse to come home with bags of treasure pillaged from -- "avert thine eyes"! -- library sales. Still, retrieval is a problem even for this smaller size. I have five back-to-back shelf racks, with bays between them. I've named the bays and racks. It's like walking into Wood-henge.

REVIEWS AND COMMENTS ("R" and "C"). I am intent on reviewing each book. Among other Cautions:

(1) These are simply my "notes" and are NOT what I would put up against "book reviews" the professional critics provide for us.

(2) Still working with the difference between "Reviews" and "Comments". I try to introduce the author and capture the gems and qualities of the work in the Review. I try to put the Perspectivity and possible Usage in the Comments. I am not very successful, perhaps belayed by conditions and passions I hardly contain.

(3) Still working on the difference between the information drawn from the work itself, distinct from my "re"-view. Trying to make useful and true comments, even quoting from the text -- see below.

(4) Bracketed numbers refer to the page of the work, and if a small letter accompanies the number, it is an attempt to refine the location.

(5) I try not to be "funny", or Judgmental, because I know "They" are not laughing, and I intend no aid to ideologues or idiots of any persuasion. (But of course, I am FOTFL, or weeping.)

(6) And with 7 billion people on the planet, any dogmatic and extreme opinions of any kind from any of them, are simply -- excuse me -- rude.

(http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/popclockwo... - the Planet has 6.6 billion people as of this writing, but this demographic projection uses an algorithm which assumes facts which are false or unknown.]

QUOTE/S -- Gems/Gifts. I do try to pull out the "gift" or unique or helpful contribution made in a book work, usually in the "Comment" section. [Nota Bene -- I am lobbying for a separate QUOTE section for the entry device].

PHOTO. My icon is one of the great hunter-gatherers of a great tribe, the Chacobo living along the Beni in Bolivia. He wore a woman's choker because of Shaman activity, and he was the only man who bleached his bark dress. He helped me make my first bow and arrows. His are pictured. Notice the length. The quiet confidence and kindness of his heart continues to inspire.

Homepagehttp://www.keylawk.blogspot.com "Shorn Again Believer&a

Also onblogspot, Tribe

Real nameThomas George Key

LocationTustin, California

Emailkeylawmail.com

Account typepublic, lifetime

Connection NewsConnection News

URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/keylawk (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/keylawk (library)

Common KnowledgeSeries (109), Awards (158), Characters (2069), Places (415)

Member sinceSep 10, 2006

Currently readingFishers of men or founders of empire? : the Wycliffe Bible translators in Latin America by David Stoll
The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth by Robert Graves
Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
Tao Teh Ching by Lao Tzu
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson
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Most recent activity

keylawk rated, reviewed, added:
The Wild Life : A year of Living on Wild Food by John Lewis-Stempel

(read review)

keylawk added:
Webster's Secretarial Handbook by Edited By Anna L. Eckersley-Johnson

keylawk added:
Top Producer: A Novel of Dark Money, Greed, and Friendship by Norb Vonnegut

keylawk rated:
Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris

keylawk rated, reviewed:
The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth by Robert Graves

(read review)

keylawk added:
The Lavender Way (the Modem Years) by Papalazarou

Sorry for the delayed reply. We just moved from San Francisco to Sacramento - or more precisely, to Lincoln, which is near Sacramento. I need time to think about your observations vis a vis the "christos" issue. A reply will follow.

posted by johnlilburnfreemason at 12:13 am (EST) on Aug 28, 2009

Lords of Finance is a fascinating book because it is really the biography of four key men during the years leading up to the Great Depression. The issues are discussed through their individual points of view, and that makes the story very interesting. Complex issues are thus made personal (adherence to the Gold Standard was more an article of faith than logical economics, and the book shows the personal anguish when it was finally realized that the standard was strangling the world economy).

I also listened to the book in an audio version, and a second "reading" made it all the better. I actually read a library copy, and now intend adding it to my collection. (My library has grown so large that I frequently try to borrow a book and read it before deciding to buy it.)

posted by johnlilburnfreemason at 1:51 pm (EST) on Aug 27, 2009

Thanks keylawk--you've saved me from error as I had actually left the 's' out. It's supposed to be tremendisimo. Kind of a technique that Cela desribed in which he would continually return to repeat basic themes or points of his story and then add a little more to it--then repeat again and add a little more again--slowly bringing his story forward to a climactic point or finale. I don't know if that explains it very well--but Cela saw a kind of musical idea behind it all.

Lobo Antunes prose style can be difficult at times. He has a tendency to weave different threads in and out of each other. There's also the black humor element. Like Cela--Lobo in his best work (Fado Alexandrino, An explanation of the birds, The inquisitor's manual) builds the story's momentum towards a crescendo at the end. It's too bad that he's not known that well over here because he is a great writer--has an edge IMO over his Nobel prize winning countryman Saramago--though Saramago is a fine writer as well.

posted by lriley at 8:08 am (EST) on Aug 12, 2009

Oh, *BLUSH*!

It is strangely pleasant to hear someone besides me gets some pleasure from my library! Thank you.

posted by LolaWalser at 10:32 am (EST) on Jul 20, 2009

Just read your blog, "Tribe" - and your interesting comments about Milton's Aeropagitica. I assume you have read John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty". They belong on the same shelf.

posted by johnlilburnfreemason at 9:39 pm (EST) on Jul 19, 2009

You'll have to explain further the etymology of "christus". The usual intepretation is that is comes from "christos", or "annointed" - a Greek translation of the Hebrew for the same term. I am also unclear about your comment on Philo of Alexandria. He was a Jewish gnostic writer. Since it is difficult to attribute anything to Jesus of Nazareth other than materials written some years after his death in c. 30 C.E., you will need to be more specific about which statements from Philo have been attributed to Jesus of Nazareth.

You can find an online copy of Philo at http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/yo....

posted by johnlilburnfreemason at 9:09 pm (EST) on Jul 19, 2009

Thanks for you note - glad to see you are still blogging....

Yes, The Quincunx and its follow-up, The Unburied, are both excellent reads, although the former has a deep brooding sense of despair about it that makes it almost an emotional challenge to get through. Both would be perfect for a panelled library in the snowy depths of winter (unlikely here in Phoenix).

posted by Makifat at 3:50 pm (EST) on May 28, 2009

Still trying to dip into fiction. Legal Classmates Joan Conway (TX) recommends: "I recommend this 800 page beautifully written mystery which is the ultimate Victorian novel about the succession of real property: "The Quincunx," by Charles Palliser, written in 1989. And in addition, without a doubt, the best entertainment within 375 pages you'll ever read is the intense drama contained in each and every chapter of the "Shadow Divers" by Robert Kurson, June 2004, a true adventure."

posted by keylawk at 3:17 pm (EST) on May 28, 2009

Just stopped by for a visit. How are you getting on? Have you discontinued your blog, or am I just having trouble linking to it?

posted by Makifat at 1:32 am (EST) on May 23, 2009

I am hoping I read correctly, by inverting the W to an M, HML -- and the reference to the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur. Yes, that would be my ideal (imagined) library.

All of our senses surfaces of the Mind.

Blessings and enjoyments.

//Chuck

posted by chuck_ralston at 4:10 pm (EST) on Apr 9, 2009

In Re: Bounty and seafaring resources. In respect of your interest I entered all my Bountiana. I think you will find it considerably more informative than the prior list. I have not entered all my seafaring books yet but I think you will see some interesting bounty stuff.
In Re: Whither Bligh? Bligh may be the best navigator and worst administrator in the history of the world. Just my thought. How about you? m

posted by mtnmdjd at 11:41 pm (EST) on Feb 27, 2009

Crap. Meant to give him a four. He was so sincere - both in his affections and his cheesemongering. How can you not like him?

posted by benwaugh at 8:16 pm (EST) on Feb 15, 2009

Gosh. how to reply without seeming hostile, which I am not. I can't see that the quotations from Macauley say anything at all about religiously inspired mobs hunting out Shakespeare's works and burning them. Of course I understand you recognize they are entirely secondary, but even so they don't even say that. I understand that R.C. religious institutions were sacked, and possibly the one across the street from Shakespeare's home was, although that sounds a lot more like Elizabethan times than Commonwealth times. I don't remember about the minister when I was at Stratford, but again I grant that his action occurred as Macauley says. I can also agree that under Cromwell theatres were closed and possibly actors flogged. I don't see anything in your quotations, though, to support your picture of mobs howling through the street looking for copies of Hamlet. I've just never heard of such. You're right, of course, that one might google it, but if it never happened, I doubt that google would turn it up. Maybe I'll try.

posted by cstebbins at 4:37 pm (EST) on Feb 14, 2009

I see that in your review of the Five Foot Shelf you say that Shakespeare's plays were hunted out by religiously inspired mobs of roundheads and burned. Can you provide a reference for this statement?

posted by cstebbins at 7:04 pm (EST) on Feb 13, 2009

I am just commenting you back from a while ago. While our books are all Native American,we work for the Cultural Center on the Soboba Band of Mission Indians. So our cultural center has things on history of the tribe here in Southern California our any other ststes. But mainly the topic is about the Mission Indians like Luisenos. Well just to answer your question and let you know. Thanks.

posted by soboba at 8:06 pm (EST) on Oct 8, 2008

I'm so sorry to hear about your cat. You should not blame yourself. I think cats know the risks they take and indeed possibly invite them as tests of courage or valour. They are marvellous animals.

Your kind words about my blog are very much appreciated. It's not so much the beaming richness of life that I love, but how that beaming richness is absorbed and reflected in literature: now THAT really gets me excited!!

Mata Hari is a very interesting figure. I knew nothing about her (except her execution as a spy) until reading your post, but I want to know more about her now. The dance traditions of Asia are particularly rich. I am a (somewhat wobbly) practitioner of Tai chi, and had the opportunity to learn some Thai dancing in Thailand. I daresay I looked ridiculous doing it, but it was quite a wonderful experience nonetheless.

posted by tomcatMurr at 10:03 pm (EST) on Sep 21, 2008

Thanks for the comment. My regards back and hello to John as well if he is still around.

posted by bill at 11:45 am (EST) on Sep 21, 2008

McLuhan ... ah, now there's somebody I need to revisit. His views on the effects of media on perception, consciousness, and society were very stimulating to me when I first became aware of them in the 1970s. They offered me a way to perceive and adapt to the enormous technological changes that were taking place then (and now). I guess that would have made me a conservative at heart, despite my counterculture lifestyle - at the time - and sentiments - still today.

What strikes me now about McLuhan is how he managed to develop and retain his faith in Catholicism - or even have any faith at all in Christianity - given his seemingly detached and clinical view of a morphing humankind in an evolutionary environment dominated by technological change. Maybe it was his underlying conservatism that I sensed and appreciated back then.

This quote for example from http://www.theinterim.com/2007/april/18m... is almost shocking, given the secular nature of McLuhan's work and fame - as a critic of TV advertising, for example.

"A common misconception arose that McLuhan actually endorsed new technologies and media. Although Gary Wolfe has observed that McLuhan hoped electronic civilization would provide a spiritual leap forward and put humankind in closer contact with God, McLuhan later called the electronic universe “an unholy imposter … a blatant manifestation of the anti-Christ.” According to Derrick DeKerkhove, current director of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto, McLuhan privately let it be known that “the devil was in the media.”

“This could be the time of the anti-Christ,” McLuhan said in 1977, alluding to media’s potential to reach every human being on earth at the same time. “It is Lucifer’s moment … The age in which we live is certainly favourable to an anti-Christ.”

That pretty much squares with my view of most media as Maya and attachment. But it would be an interesting study to see how McLuhan puts it in Roman Catholic terminology.

Peace,
G

posted by Ganeshaka at 4:17 pm (EST) on Aug 18, 2008

Hi Keylawk,
Thanks for the kind note. And greetings from Indonesia. As an author I am grateful you appreciate my book. I don't think the Taman have a unique regard for stones but in all my studies I have never come across an analogous tradition of belief about stones materializing out of spirits and taking on soul attributes. With best regards,
Jay

posted by Jaybernstein at 9:15 pm (EST) on Jul 31, 2008

Pleasurable Greetings Keylawk,

Upon viewing your profile, I felt (I wonder why?) like an anaconda who has swallowed a wizard - head first. I began with a dropped jaw (amazement), then a tickle from the headdress feathers (amusement), then an enormous stomach bulge (the stimulation of new information and a new personality), and, finally sleepiness (as I strive to digest your library). Needless to say, it would child's play to work a trip to Amazon.com into this analogy, but I will suppress (barely) mychildself for now.

I shall return,
-G

posted by Ganeshaka at 3:10 pm (EST) on Jul 25, 2008

Well, Mell! I just found the LT Melvinsico collection, with his FIFTY serious reviews of formidable books. I share almost none of them. His library is all about how the world actually works, in its financial/economic levers, and I studied anthropology and war. In looking at Europe, he studied the monetary Ferguson, Meltzer, and Gallarotti, while I studied Political History. In looking at the Viet Nam War, he studied Levinson's history of containerization ("The Box"), and its impact on globalization. While I studied Adam Smith's references to the East India Company, and Smith's impact on capitalism and Marxism, he has Bowen's history of the East India Company and its impact on world empire. Beautiful reviews.

posted by keylawk at 10:16 am (EST) on Jul 3, 2008

You know, it simply isn't everyone who decides to sit down, read, and review Blackstone's Commentaries. Sun Tzu, maybe, but Blackstone? I hafta say, that caught my eye. :-)

posted by Joycepa at 5:44 pm (EST) on Jul 1, 2008

Aren't we all (conventionally boring people trapped in a wildly improbable life)!

My time in the Amazon (4 trips total, in all about 6 months or so) region was spent in and around the Brasilian town of Tefé where I mostly stayed with the Spiritans Fathers missionaries (which meant living maybe one step above the normal poor Brasilians). Dirt poor area, drug traffic way station, nothing romantic about it except that I fell in love with the river. Tefé itself is not on the Solimões, but on a lake a short distance away. I've been there and on the river during both the dry season and the rainy season, spending some time during the flood (cheia) season in the varzea, or flooded forest. It is the most enchanted area I know of. Period.

Joyce

posted by Joycepa at 10:39 am (EST) on Jun 30, 2008

In my enthusiastic reply to your message, I neglected to address the issues you raise with the book under discussion.

Persian Fire devotes as much time to describing the history and the culture of the Persians as it does to detailing the Hellenic world. The sense of balance is extraordinary, so that we are given an opportunity to see -- and sometimes admire -- the Persians the way the ancient Greeks did. The central character in the war, indeed the saga itself, is (and rightly so) Themistocles, an occasionally rogueish yet saavy, cunning and brilliant authentic hero somewhat akin to the Odysseus of myth. He is the "indispensible man" -- warts and all -- of the Greek triumph. Ironically, he ends up (like so many Greek statesmen of the classic period) later an outcast under sentence of death, living in exile at the pleasure of the Persian Great King.

There is no doubt in my mind that had the Persians persevered in the conflict, the entire history of Western Civilization would have been written in a very different fashion.

Of the couple of hundred books of history I've read, I would rate Persian Fire among the top 5 or 10. Read it and I think you'll agree ...

posted by Garp83 at 7:10 pm (EST) on Jun 25, 2008

Glad you liked my Persian Fire review. I was very enthusiastic while reading the book and it has stayed with me long after. I read a lot of history -- mostly ancient history and American history -- and I find it unfortunate that many writers of history are often dull and uninspiring. Holland is in every way the antithesis of that tendency.

Reading your profile and admiring your book collection, I might suggest you read [River of Doubt] by Candice Millard, a recent book that is history and so much more, focusing on Theodore Roosevelt's somewhat ill-fated exploration of an unknown river of the Amazon River basin in 1913. So lively and well written you will inhale it.

Another great book is Charles Mann's masterpiece of pre-Columbian historical investigation: [1491]

Grateful for your compliment of my review -- I wish I had time to write more reviews!

posted by Garp83 at 10:13 pm (EST) on Jun 24, 2008

Thank you for your compliment about my reviews. I write them for selfish reasons - to help me remember each book that I have read. However, I am always glad to learn that my reviews are helpful to other readers too.

Happy Reading!
Jill

posted by mrstreme at 8:53 pm (EST) on Jun 24, 2008

Thanks! You might want to check out the Stonehenge article in the current issue of National Geographic. It's pretty interesting.

posted by Marshdrifter at 12:40 pm (EST) on Jun 8, 2008

Hello, and thank you for your comment. I have not yet read Mortenson's THREE CUPS OF TEA, so can't comment on what he claims to have done. It sounds like an interesting book. But yes, I have known people who do solo mountaineering, climbing, and wilderness trekking, and have at times done so myself. People who choose to do this are often seeking to avoid contact with others during their time in the wilderness, so I am not surprised that you have not encountered them while camping. We usually avoid well used trails, and often stay off of the trails entirely in places where we are likely to encounter other people.

posted by elkmtnsridge at 11:01 am (EST) on May 28, 2008

I can't remember about the Vanity Fair but I believe when I was counting the pages I included the index/extra info like intro and such. I'd have to find my book again to verify but that's like looking for a needle in a haystack! Haha.

posted by Angelic55blonde at 5:57 pm (EST) on Apr 24, 2008

To be honest, I am not sure what I am, and as I mature, I guess I am less and less concerned with it. I worship with Quakers, who are much like Unitarians, only quieter, if that is possible. Our meeting has room for Christians, Buddhists, Jews, and non-theists of varying sorts. We don't care if you are gay, straight or in the middle. So in many ways we are much like Unitarians.

My full time job is as a chaplain in a hospital, and I deal with a wide range of people, and a wider range of spiritual issues.

I am looking forward to prowling around your library for a while. I see you are from So Cal. My wife is down in LA right now. Her family is from there, and most of them still live there. I get down ocassionally, so maybe we can have coffee sometime. (Her family lives in the Los Feliz area, which is pretty far from Orange Country, but then EVERYTHING down there is far from everything else.)

posted by Arctic-Stranger at 3:48 pm (EST) on Mar 12, 2008

Please drop in again when you have less time.

posted by benwaugh at 12:33 am (EST) on Mar 10, 2008

I only look for amphibian errors. Blame it on a marathon "Frog and Toad" reading session with my 3 year old. So far he has no interest in Hittites, Myceneans, Scythians, or Phoenicians (except the ones living here in Phoenix). And he knows enough about the Carthaginians to make him afraid, very afraid.

posted by Makifat at 12:37 pm (EST) on Feb 9, 2008

Re: your review of Guerney's The Hittites. I believe you meant "in the vicinity of the Troad", rather than "in the vicinity of the Toad". Although the idea of a giant prehistoric amphibian roaming the Anatolian hills is quite intriguing.

Cheers, and happy cataloging.

posted by Makifat at 1:41 am (EST) on Feb 8, 2008

The cookbook authors I think are the greatest do not have great sensual, visual descriptions of food in their books:
Julia Child for Mastering the Art of French Cooking, vols I and II, (It has line drawings)
Marcella Hazan for Classic italian Cooking and Cucina,
Elizabeth David for all her books,
Claudia Roden for Jewish Food,
Paula Wolfert for all her books,
Mark Bittman for How to Cook Everything,
Barbara Tropp for her books on Chinese Cooking
and Escoffier, for Guide Culinaire.
The Renaissance of Italian Coooking by Lorenza de medici has some beautiful pictures and descriptions, but the Hazan books are better cookbooks.

posted by almigwin at 2:22 am (EST) on Jan 21, 2008

Thank you for adding me to your "interesting libraries" list. I hope to add some boxes of anthropology soon, including a lot of South American ethnologies (most of which I presume you are already familiar with). Nevertheless, our list of shared works will probably be expanding.

I also look forward to taking a deeper look at your blog.

Cheers!

posted by Makifat at 9:59 am (EST) on Jan 10, 2008

wooops
Malraux indeed. Lol thanks for pointing it out.
Do you know this poem by Stephen Spender?

I think continually of those who were truly great.
Who, from the womb, remembered the soul's history
Through corridors of light where the hours are suns,
Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition
Was that their lips, still touched with fire,
Should tell of the spirit clothed from head to foot in song.
And who hoarded from the spring branches
The desires falling across their bodies like blossoms.

What is precious is never to forget
The delight of the blood drawn from ancient springs
Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth;
Never to deny its pleasure in the simple morning light,
Nor its grave evening demand for love;
Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother
With noise and fog the flowering of the spirit.

Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields
See how these names are fêted by the waving grass,
And by the streamers of white cloud,
And whispers of wind in the listening sky;
The names of those who in their lives fought for life,
Who wore at their hearts the fire's center.
Born of the sun, they traveled a short while towards the sun,
And left the vivid air signed with their honor.

~ Stephen Spender ~

Your personal post on SAB brought it to mind.

posted by tomcatMurr at 3:35 am (EST) on Nov 26, 2007

Nice review of (and thoughts on) the Alhambra!

posted by slickdpdx at 10:00 pm (EST) on Nov 5, 2007

When you say my wish list is all good, does that mean you have looked at it? I would be interested to know what you think of it, and which ones you think I shouldn't neglect. There is always the public library!.

posted by almigwin at 8:26 pm (EST) on Nov 5, 2007

thanks for the praise! as for the question, on wine and writing, if i am not a wee bit softened up, i deliberate too long, so wine speeds me up -- this is particularly true for translation and when i was pressed for a big job i did not like i had to drink a couple bottles a day, but now i write for myself i only drink a half botle a day, sipping very slowly on an empty stomach and find it also keeps the various pains my body has accumulated at bay

ps seeing the letter above, i love twain, too, and in my most recent book quote his 1601.

posted by keigu at 11:47 am (EST) on Oct 30, 2007

As a reference book geek, I am fascinated by your dictionary collection. Perchance, have you spent much time browsing through the [Dictionary of the History of Ideas]?

posted by lilbrattyteen at 1:31 pm (EST) on Oct 27, 2007

Thanks for lobbying for our wounded veterans. I'm a veteran myself and very grateful.

posted by Ecrivaine32 at 2:38 pm (EST) on Aug 28, 2007

Thanks for the "Twain Trivia"--It is interesting, there are so many occurences like the one between Clemens and Tesla, Clemens effected everyone he met, not to mention those who only got to read his books. Clemens must have been dynamic in person, I would love to have met him. A brilliant man, rather out of place in time. Can you imagine what he'd say about the world today?

posted by mrlibrarian at 7:40 pm (EST) on Aug 26, 2007

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