“No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.”
― C.S. Lewis
I've re-read some books from my youth over the past decade. Two of those, I passed along to my brother for his birthdays over the last couple of years.
The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter and Rascal by Sterling North. Read or re-read both of these.
While putting the finishing touches on my new course, I listened to the audio version of Richard Powers' The Overstory. It's a commitment to read at 512 pages but also to listen to at 20+ hours. It's worth it if you have any interest whatsoever in trees.
I really wanted to get into another Richter book so now, I am listening to the audio version of The Trees. I don't know who reads Richter anymore but he writes with intimate knowledge of the beginnings of what has become the United States of America. Anyway, it's a good chaser for The Overstory.
The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter and Rascal by Sterling North. Read or re-read both of these.
While putting the finishing touches on my new course, I listened to the audio version of Richard Powers' The Overstory. It's a commitment to read at 512 pages but also to listen to at 20+ hours. It's worth it if you have any interest whatsoever in trees.
I really wanted to get into another Richter book so now, I am listening to the audio version of The Trees. I don't know who reads Richter anymore but he writes with intimate knowledge of the beginnings of what has become the United States of America. Anyway, it's a good chaser for The Overstory.
"That's how life was. Death and birth, grub and harvest, rain and clearing, winter nand summer. You had to take one with the other for that's the way it ran."
—Conrad Richter
I also recommend this sort of related NYT article if you suffer at all from any anxiety related to all that falls under the euphemism of climate change.
I've been re-watching some favorite movies, too. There are scenes in As Good As It Gets that I can watch over and over again without them ever getting old. Some of my favorite moments on film are those between Jack Nicholson and Greg Kinnear in this flick.
But what really slayed me earlier this week was watching The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Alan Arkin gives a master class in acting. It was the first movie that I ever went to see on my own at the Suburban Theater in Ardmore, PA. I'm sure that I cried. I did not realize until I just watched it again that James Wong Howe was the cinematographer. If you want to see a master class in black and white cinematography, watch what Howe does in Hud.
To wrap this up, I've been listening over and over again to Igor Zhukov play César Franck's Prélude, Fugue et Variation, Op. 18. It's a recording of a live performance from the Husum Festival in 1994. I've never heard another pianist bring out the organ in this piece like Zhukov does.
If you follow any of these links and listen, read, or watch, I hope that you enjoy or at least appreciate what I've shared.
I've been re-watching some favorite movies, too. There are scenes in As Good As It Gets that I can watch over and over again without them ever getting old. Some of my favorite moments on film are those between Jack Nicholson and Greg Kinnear in this flick.
But what really slayed me earlier this week was watching The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Alan Arkin gives a master class in acting. It was the first movie that I ever went to see on my own at the Suburban Theater in Ardmore, PA. I'm sure that I cried. I did not realize until I just watched it again that James Wong Howe was the cinematographer. If you want to see a master class in black and white cinematography, watch what Howe does in Hud.
To wrap this up, I've been listening over and over again to Igor Zhukov play César Franck's Prélude, Fugue et Variation, Op. 18. It's a recording of a live performance from the Husum Festival in 1994. I've never heard another pianist bring out the organ in this piece like Zhukov does.
If you follow any of these links and listen, read, or watch, I hope that you enjoy or at least appreciate what I've shared.
“A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.”
― Robertson Davies
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