Journal of a Sabbatical

September 22, 1998

rain

Copyright © 1998, Janet I. Egan

I don't have anything to say today. In fact I haven't had anything to say for a very long time. But, be that as it may, I'm trying to put together a journal entry. Sort of as an exercise in self-discipline. Special for today, click on the kingbird logo above for an excerpt from the AOU monograph for the Eastern Kingbird. Or read more than you ever wanted to know about monk parakeets (mentioned in the June 21 entry and others).

I meant to link this Globe article about The Bridge Review to one of my entries about the Andover Poets awhile back. The Bridge Review came to mind because I was talking with Tom & Julie about it today at Starbucks while Julie dried off from the soaking she got walking from the historical society to Starbucks. Other conversation topics included the upcoming Lowell Celebrates Kerouac festival, my nieces, T & J's grandchildren's upcoming birthdays (they're all in October), the play about the Andover witch trials, Ned, the historical society, Rhode Island history, copyright issues on material Julie used in her book on the beats (not her issue - the Kerouac estate has issues too complicated to go into here - I think Julie should write about about the dueling Kerouac executors, dueling biographers, strange biographies, etc.), the rain, the historical society, the vast right wing conspiracy, and much much more. I was surprised that when the rain let up enough for me to dash to the car only an hour and a half had passed.

I mailed the newsletters that I folded and stuffed into envelopes yesterday, worked on the vegetation profile for the IDRI web page, browsed the web endlessly wasting time, folded the rest of the newsletters and stuffed 'em in envelopes, and inventoried the book pile.

Actually, the book pile inventory started because I was trying to reassure myself that I have not totally lost my ability to read in a timely manner. I feel so inadequate when I read some of the other on-line journals and see the pace at which people read (I know I mentioned this before, but it still bothers me.) At the beginning of the calendar year I started writing down the title and author of every book I read in a conveniently space provided specifically for that purpose in my appointment calendar. At some point, I acquired a Reader's Journal in which I started recording start and end dates, publisher info, comments, quotes, ratings, etc. too.

The first thing I did for this book pile project was to type in the list of the books I'd already read along with completion dates if I had them written down or remembered them, like so:

Title	Author	Date Finished	F/N/P
Close to the Machine	Ellen Ullman	?	N
The Search for the PinkHeaded Duck	Rory Nugent	?	N
New England's Prospect	William Wood	?	N
A Key Into the Language of America	Roger Williams	?	N
Wait Til Next Year	Doris Kearns Goodwin	?	N
The Cat Who Sang Like a Bird	Lillian Jackson Braun	?	F
The Name of War	Jill Lepore	5/3/98	N
A Key Into the Language of America	Rosemary Waldrop	?	P
Terra Incognita	Sara Wheeler	5/24/98	N
The Coast	Joseph Thorndike	4/30/98?	N
Margins	Mary Parker Buckles	6/1/98	N
Notes from the Shore	Jennifer Ackerman	6/8/98	N
A Naturalist Along the Jersey Shore	Joanne Burger	7/1/98	N
On Watching Birds	Lawrence Kilham	7/4/98	N
The Windup Bird Chronicle	Haruki Murakami	7/14/98	F
Other People's Dirt	Louise Rafkin	7/21/98	N
Looking for the Lost	Alan Booth	8/26/98	N
Tropical Classical	Pico Iyer	8/26/98	N
Spartina	John Casey	9/9/98	F
Glass, Paper, Beans	Leah Hager Cohen	in progress	N

(now you don't have to click on the bookpile to see the list).

As I did this, I realized only 3 of the books in question were novels and one of those was beastly long (The Windup Bird Chronicle). The rest are various forms of non-fiction, some fairly difficult some just travel essays, some fairly difficult travel essays :-) So maybe I'm not doing as badly as I thought.

The pile on the bedroom floor loomed large and overwhelming until I realized it's almost all reference books - not stuff I'd sit and read from cover to cover. That still leaves quite a list:

Mrs. Chippy's Last Expedition	Alexander, Caroline	F
City of God	Augustine, St.	N
The Confessions of St. Augustine	Augustine, St.	N
The Crystal Desert	Campbell, David	N
The Life and Death of the Salt Marsh	Teal, John and Mildred	N
Reservation Blues	Alexie, Sherman	F
Changes in the Land	Cronon, William	N
North to Thule	Frye & Frye	?
Below the Convergence	Gurney	N
The Atlantic Shore	Hay, John	N
The Way to the Salt Marsh	Hay, John	N
A Year in the Maine Woods	Heinrich, Bernd	N
The Trees in my Forest	Heinrich, Bernd	N
The Lady and the Monk	Iyer, Pico	N
Why the Earth Quakes	Levy and Salvadori	N
May Sarton	Peters, Margot	N
The Moor's Last Sigh	Rushdie, Salman	F
Song for the Blue Ocean	Safina, Carl	N
Scott's Last Expedition	Scott, Robert Falcon	N
Until I Have No Country	Tougias, Michael	F
The Journal of John Winthrop	Winthrop, John	N

Like I really had any intention of reading City of God and the Confessions?!? I think I must've read abridged versions in theology class because I don't remember them being that huge. I have re-read chunks of the Confessions, but I don't think I'll get to City of God this year. That still leaves quite a few books to digest in the last quarter of '98. But somehow, I'm a lot less worried about my reading abilities and pace than I was before I did this inventory. The list is not totally overwhelming, especially if I take out St. Augustine.

Since I didn't keep records back when I was a corporate slave, I have no idea if my reading pace is better or worse now that I "have more time".