Larry’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2020)

Larry’s comments from the Nonfiction Reading - Only the Best group.

John wrote: "Larry wrote: "John, have you picked out which iPad you will get?"

Larry, I get somewhat confused about how Apple designates its products, but the one I like is the 2021 standard iPad. It is 10.7 i..."

That is exactly what I would get ... and probably will get when one of our two larger iPads bites the dust. Both of them have 128GB, but the extra storage over the next few years makes a lot of sense. And we don't need those upgrades either.

John, have you picked out which iPad you will get?

It's just a guess, but I bet we have sold or given away about 7,000 books and still have about 3,000. But these days, more than 90 percent of my reading is on my Kindle (books) or iPad (periodicals). There are a few books that I really prefer as physical books ... mainly a few art books. Even with art books, I have been really surprised at how well many of these have been transferred to ebooks ... pdfs or as Kindle books on Kindle Fires or the Kindle app on the iPad.

I could get by with no physical books--except for the few that have sentimental value. I would have a very hard time coping with not having my Kindle PapeWhite.

Carol, the connection that we get through our devices has been radically good. FaceTiming with our granddaughters every morning and evening has helped us during the darkest part of the pandemic ... and it continues even as we see them in person. very evening is a treat as Ella (our older granddaughter) does a watercolor painitng and then shows it to us after abotu 30 minutes.

John wrote: "Larry wrote: "John and Carol,

It does help to have this book by your side if you read Eco's book: The Key to The Name of the Rose: Including Translations of All Non-English Passages...."

I have that book as a hardback in a box in our basement ... I have TOO MANY books in boxes in the basement.

John and Carol,

It does help to have this book by your side if you read Eco's book: The Key to The Name of the Rose: Including Translations of All Non-English Passages.

This is from the publisher's (University of Michigan) website:

""The Key to 'The Name of the Rose' is a conversation with readers of The Name of the Rose. You will find it a wonderfully illuminating conversation that furthers and deepens your reading experience. The authors' scholarship is as unerring as their sense of fun: The Key is full of bizarre characters and mirthful anecdotes. It is, in truth, a delightful guide not just to The Name of the Rose, but to the Middle Ages. For those who have read and enjoyed The Name of the Rose, this key will prove a belated boom; for those who have been intending to take the plunge, The Key is a real lifesaver, time-saver, decoder. But it is also a pleasure in itself."
—Thomas Cahill"

Also this: https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-nam...

John wrote: "It is very cold today in North Carolina. I don’t seem accustomed as I used to be to cold weather. We are saying goodbye to March. Hence a periodic poem from A.E. Stallings.

NETLES

March: pinked l..."

John,

I'm stealing this one and posting it elsewhere!

And it is very cold here in Northern Virginia ... we went out grocery shopping at 6:00am and it was 26 degrees.

"The poem below, Epitaph, was written by Merrit Malloy and as one of those poems, has become a staple of funeral and memorial services…for good reason.”

Epitaph - By Merrit Malloy

When I die
Give what’s left of me away
To children
And old men that wait to die.

And if you need to cry,
Cry for your brother
Walking the street beside you.
And when you need me,
Put your arms
Around anyone
And give them
What you need to give to me.

I want to leave you something,
Something better
Than words
Or sounds.

Look for me
In the people I’ve known
Or loved,
And if you cannot give me away,
At least let me live on in your eyes
And not your mind.

You can love me most
By letting
Hands touch hands,
By letting bodies touch bodies,
And by letting go
Of children
That need to be free.

Love doesn’t die,
People do.
So, when all that’s left of me
Is love,
Give me away.

Sher, I love the utter simplicity of this ... that simplicity penetrates deeply.

Carol wrote: "I seem to remember my bil saying there is a train some of the way. .."

I think that that is what they are going to do.

Carol wrote: "Larry wrote: "Neruda's THE HEIGHTS OF MACCHU PICHU is a must read. And speaking of Macchu Pichu, my daughter-in-law is "in training" to visit there in June."

I hope she trains well! My brother and..."

She's smart enough in terms of knowing her limitations to know that she can't do the whole hike up the mountain. I don't know where exactly she will begin the climb. She's going to Peru on business, but for this part of the trip she'll be joined by her roommate from college.

Neruda's THE HEIGHTS OF MACCHU PICHU is a must read. And speaking of Macchu Pichu, my daughter-in-law is "in training" to visit there in June.

John,

My choices are pretty conventional. I could probably come up with another five that I like just as much, but I like all of these a lot.

Robert Frost - Robert Frost's Poems

W.S. Merwin - Migration: New and Selected Poems

W.H. Auden - Collected Poems Collected Poems

Pablo Neruda - The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems

Elizabeth Bishop - The Complete Poems 1927-1979

John,

I'm happy to share that. But I'll have to think for a bit!

Carol, it is is set during the time of the An Lushan Rebellion, the uprising against the Tang dynasty of China towards the mid-point of the dynasty (from 755 to 763). And it is during the most productive time of Tu Fu writing.

Here is one explanation of the time when he wrote this:

"When Tu arrived in Amble-Awe, he found a city perched dramatically atop cliffwalls overlooking the spectacular Triple-Gorge, a two-hundred-mile-long series of three deep gorges formed where the river cut its way through the formidable Shamaness Mountains. Tu was now on the very edge of Chinese civilization. Although traces of Chinese culture reached cities along the river, the area was otherwise inhabited by aboriginal tribes speaking a language indecipherable to Tu. And it seems Tu was now afflicted by diabetes, in addition to his other chronic illnesses. But after struggling on a rented farm for six months, Tu found a new benefactor in the chief local official, Amble-Awe’s prefect and military commander. Tu worked in a token position with few real responsibilities, which afforded him financial security and the use of an apartment atop the city-wall, in a tower overlooking the gorges. This combination of financial security and existential exposure (edge of his home civilization, ill health, wild landscape) made the two years he spent in Amble-Awe by far his most productive period."

Hinton, David. Awakened Cosmos (p. 94). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.

"Very nice. The older I get, the more I prefer simplicity." John, I definitely prefer simplicity.

Carol, my first guess was Minnesota, but it could have been Michigan or Wisconsin.

A simple poem ... sometimes a simple poem is about all my old mind can handle.

A Northern Town
by George Denham

I grew up in a northern town
Solemn people all around,
Not so joyful, goodness knows,
Except on morning when it snows.
We wake to worlds all wondrous bright,
Glittering particles in the light,
Dazzling snow and shining ice,
A January paradise.
After school, down at the park,
We play hockey in the dark,
Grand Forks, Green Bay, and Duluth
Vibrate to the love of youth,
Snow and ten below is sweet,
Skating, generating heat.

George Denham, “I Grew Up in a Northern Town.”

Carol wrote: "Larry wrote: "Carol wrote: "The tragedy of war is occupying everyone's thoughts today and many poems are being written about it. Hopefully the suffering will soon end and there will be no escalatio..."

Carol, your thoughts and your concerns so closely replicate my own.

Sher, the poem is great. it just reverberates around my mind.

Carol wrote: "The tragedy of war is occupying everyone's thoughts today and many poems are being written about it. Hopefully the suffering will soon end and there will be no escalation of the conflict either int..."

Carol, it's important news that is coming out of Turkey. I think that ultimately, Ukraine can let the Crimea go as part of a peace treaty. I'm not sure about the other contested regions (Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine’s Donbas region). I don't know enough about the many issues there ... just the fact that yeah, there are a lot of native Russian speakers in those regions.