I. The Nine Planets The first time I experienced a sense of wonder was upon arriving home from the Franklin Township Public Library and tearing into the book I’d just checked out: a nonfiction astronomy by Franklyn M. Branley titled The Nine Planets. I was still learning to read, and I can clearly recall wondering
In the summer of 2007, I traveled to Europe for a month and I brought with me, as entertainment for the flight, the recent James Bond hit Casino Royale. I spent my first few days in Europe in Venice, and as I walked about St. Mark’s Square, I was momentarily taken aback by its familiarity.
I have been reading Robert D. Richardson’s 1995 biography Emerson: The Mind On Fire. I find myself more fascinated by Emerson’s use of notebooks than by his actual writing or transcendentalism. Halfway through the biography, it seems to me that Emerson thought through his notebooks. By the end of his life, he’d filled hundreds of
I am currently in the process of taking inventory of the books in my library. I’ve started with the physical books and so far I’d put the estimate somewhere between 1,200-1,400. I know that I have more than 1,700 audiobooks on top of that. And another 500 or so e-books. Call it 3,600 books all
Well, my desk is a mess and maybe I’ll put it into some order today. I have far too many books I want to read, all of them RIGHT NOW and on a wide variety of subjects. I want to re-learn science, not how it was taught in school, but with a historical backbone to
It recently occurred to me that I have been using and collecting Field Notes notebooks for more than a decade now. My first notebook dates from June 2015, which means I’ve been using these notebooks longer than our youngest daughter has been alive. In that time, I’ve collected a few hundred notebooks, thanks in part to the
The September / October issue of Smithsonian Magazine has a fantastic article by Richard Grant on Cormac McCarthy’s library. Over the years, I’ve read just three of McCarthy’s books: No Country for Old Men in 2018, and more recently the dual novel / novella The Passenger and Stella Maris, both of which were among my
Sometimes, I need a breath of fresh air. Back in February, I discovered that one of my favorite writers, the late David McCullough, was coming out with a new book, edited by his daughter, Dorie McCullough Lawson. The book, History Matters, came out today and I began listening to it with delight on my morning
There are, from time to time, books I attempt to read that I am simply not ready for. They seem interesting, I start them, but I don’t make it very far. Years later I might come back to them, and find that I am ready, and I read the book with joy and delight that