From Charles Darwin’s “pro” list in favor of marriage when he was a young man: “A constant companion, one who will feel interested in one (a friend in old age)– object to be beloved and play with.” Pop song constantly playing on Zimbabwe radio when I was there many years ago: “Be patient You will …
Tag: Writing
A Commonplace Book
For years I have kept what the English call a commonplace book, a place to write down quotes. I gave it up a few years ago, but have started up again. Re- reading it (or them; I have several volumes), I have discovered things worth adding to the blog, from the whimsical to the serious. …
For Rifle Loonies…
John Barsness invented the term “Rifle Loony” long before his new book, Obsessions of a Rifle Loony. It is not necessarily a negative term; the readers of this blog who like guns are extremely likely to fall into the category. This is a book for not- so- rich devotees of good, useful tools who want …
Gun Book Reviews
I have received three good gun books lately, and I think I can almost see a narrative thread between them. They are not, as so many magazine articles seem to be today, advertisements in the form of product reviews. The first, Hemingway’s Guns, by Silvio Calabi, Steve Helsey, and Roger Songer, is a scholarly but …
Tiger Reading
John Vaillant did a reading last night at Riverrun Books in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for his wonderful new book on Amur tigers, poachers, and rangers. I had participated in part by reviewing The Tiger here. I’ll let him configure the whole tale for you, but Dr Hypercube was the pivotal figure, and blogged it here. …
Bird Nerd Review Post
Heavy (bird) science warning! John Burchard asked me recently about the current evolutionary status of New World Vultures, and I realized my answer “reviewed” a book I had been meaning to. So consider the following to be my semi- official review of the amazing book The Inner Bird by Gary Kaiser. The very latest– this …
Quote of the Week
Heard on network TV no less, but still worth it; “Better to write for yourself and have no readers than to write for your audience and have no self”. Credited to Cyril Connolly which rings true, and sounds like Enemies of Promise, but I can’t find my copy. Readers?
Vance Bourjaily RIP
Just got the news from Chad at Mallard of Discontent that novelist Vance Bourjaily is dead at 87. Bourjaily was considered one of the best of the postwar novelists and then just faded from popularity– I don’t know why, as I considered his best as good as any and better than most. He was unapologetically …
Joel
Our friend and sometimes neighbor Joel Becktell– we say “sometimes” only because he is a full time freelance cellist and though he has lived here for years travels every month of the year, somehow managing to maintain a garden and cook good meals for his friends, and staying up with me all too late to …
To Come…
Reviews, short notes,and recommendations on things as various as a strange English memoir with angling (Luke Jenning’s Blood Knot), a fairly technical and indispensable book on bird anatomy and evolution (Gary Kaiser’s The Inner Bird– see Darren; link later), and Sy Montgomery’s Birdology, which I will review at length in Living Bird– my favorite books …