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

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

John wrote: "I find myself completely disgusted by China more than any country on earth these days. I could list all the valid reasons, but I’ll leave it be...."

John, I've been reading a lot about China in recent months, and little that I read would make me want to persuade you otherwise.

Carol wrote: "Along with everyone else I have been very much hoping that the tennis player, Peng Shuai, would be allowed to speak freely so that we can see she is safe. So far, the video released has obviously n..."

Carol, what a wonderful way to honor Peng Shuai. I don't trust the Chinese one bit by arranging for her staged appearance. I hope that pressure continues to build so that some degree of justice is obtained for her.

Carol wrote: "It made me sad to read the poem. I gather Walt Whitman volunteered as a nurse/visitor in the Washington area during the Civil War. He was clearly a very compassionate man and that feeling imbues th..."

It is a sad poem indeed.

These two links provide first a look at Whitman and then second a look at a beautiful recreation of his SONG OF MYSELF.

https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/an...

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

Larry

John wrote: "That’s a nice one. For some reason, I have never taken to Whitman. Perhaps I need to read a selected poems of his to see if I can change that dynamic..."

John, in recent years I have come to like Whitman's poetry more and more. It is hard for me to say that that is because of the poetry itself or its historical significance.

As Toilsome I Wander’d Virginia’s Woods
by Walt Whitman

As toilsome I wander’d Virginia’s woods,
To the music of rustling leaves kick’d by my feet, (for ’twas
autumn,)
I mark’d at the foot of a tree the grave of a soldier;
Mortally wounded he and buried on the retreat, (easily all
could I understand,)
The halt of a mid-day hour, when up! no time to lose—yet
this sign left,
On a tablet scrawl’d and nail’d on the tree by the grave,
Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.

Long, long I muse, then on my way go wandering,
Many a changeful season to follow, and many a scene of life,
Yet at times through changeful season and scene, abrupt,
alone, or in the crowded street,
Comes before me the unknown soldier’s grave, comes the
inscription rude in Virginia’s woods,
Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade.


“As Toilsome I Wander’d Virginia’s Woods” by Walt Whitman.

John wrote: "Giving this a try: The New York Times Book Review: 125 Years of Literary History."

With all the changes in our increasing digitalized world, one of the things I rely on is the New York Times Book Review. I think I've been reading it for about 50 years now. I buy a Kindle copy of the New York Times every Sunday ... a great buy for 99 cents ... and the first thing I go to is the Book Review. It's not that the book reviews are the best ... I really prefer the more detailed ones in the New York Review of Books or the London Review of Books, but the New York Times is most likely to have a review of a book that I probably want to read, and usually the reviews are good.

John wrote: "I’ve always enjoyed the writing of Susan Orlean. I have not read any of her collections; rather, just the essays that have appeared in the New Yorker over the years. ..."

John, I can really recommend her The Library Book which is a commendable history of the Los Angeles Library generally and especially the 1986 fire that did so much damage to the collection at the Central Library. The research is perhaps better than the writing, which seems to drag on in the latter part of the book.

John wrote: "I have always been interested in the work of Reynolds Price, but have not read much more than some of his essays. He was a longtime professor at Duke and wrote about North Carolina. I have his firs..."My English composition professor when I was a freshman was one of Reynolds Price's students and was actually very close to him.

Carol wrote: "I don't expect you are a fan of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, but I am, (although it is sometimes a bit gruesome, I have to say, and I have to flick quickly over some parts) and I was extremely disappointed that when the series which takes place near Wilmington was produced, it was filmed in Scotland, not the US. I was looking forward to images of the countryside there. I"

Carol,

my wife and I are big fans of the series. We're waiting for the next season to start soon. The mountains around Asheville look a lot like the Scottish scenery in the series supposedly set in the NC mountains.

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/o...

Larry

Carol wrote: "Have you read Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens? It is set in the marshlands of North Carolina and has the most wonderful descriptions of the countryside and the flora and fauna. Not surprisin..."

Carol,

I've had that book on my TBR list .... I'll move it up close to the top.

THE SUN RISING
by John Donne

BUSY old fool, unruly Sun,
   Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run?
   Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide
   Late school-boys and sour prentices,
    Go tell court-huntsmen that the king will ride,
    Call country ants to harvest offices;
Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,
Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.

Thy beams so reverend, and strong
   Why shouldst thou think?
I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,
But that I would not lose her sight so long.
   If her eyes have not blinded thine,
   Look, and to-morrow late tell me,
    Whether both th’ Indias of spice and mine
    Be where thou left’st them, or lie here with me.
Ask for those kings whom thou saw’st yesterday,
And thou shalt hear, “All here in one bed lay.”

She’s all states, and all princes I;
   Nothing else is;
Princes do but play us; compared to this,
All honour’s mimic, all wealth alchemy.
   Thou, Sun, art half as happy as we,
   In that the world’s contracted thus;
    Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be
    To warm the world, that’s done in warming us.
Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;
This bed thy center is, these walls thy sphere.

Donne, John. Delphi Complete Poetical Works of John Donne (Illustrated) (Delphi Poets Series Book 9) . Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

John and Carol and Sher,

I enjoy the discussions here of what a poem says and means ... so much more than I ever enjoyed in English literature class.

John wrote: "Larry and Sher, I wanted to run an idea by you.

Although I know our focus is non fiction and poetry, I had a thought about a discussion topic. It would be the scariest book you read. I think of it..."

I'm not a big fan of the horror genre and probably have only read about ten books. But I read 'Salem's Lot and thought it was terrifying. Another similar one was by Dan Simmons. This was Song of Kali. Terrifying and heartbreaking. I've read it three times.

John wrote: "That’s interesting, Larry. I have looked at Perlego. I am finding that Scribd currently has me quite deep in just about everything I wish to peruse or read...."

John, I think that I have about 500 books saved/book marked on Scribd now. :-) So many books .. so little time.

John, this is from Pico Iyer's My Guidebook to Japan, which is one of the many essays in the book:

"It was Thoreau who’d told me that I could find the whole world in a single room—and in fact do so better in a single room than a large mansion, by learning to look closely at everything around me. It was Thoreau who’d taught me that it was “not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar,”1 but that there is a virtue in finding the clarifying space that can reveal that truth to you, a space that tends to sit along the margins of the world. Most hauntingly, it was Thoreau who had nudged me awake by simply stating that he did not wish to die having found he had not lived. I was just thirty, free of dependents, and I was ready to live; the very fact I was enjoying my fast-paced life as a journalist in midtown Manhattan made me realize that I could easily remain so exhilarated by it that I’d awaken, forty years on, and wonder why I’d never listened to some deeper summons."

John, that book is already available for reading on Perlego. That's not the first one that Perlego has had that is actually available before the official publication date. Increasingly, I think we will live in a digital world, where we rent things instead on owning them.

John wrote: "This morning I saw an article about a housing issue in NYC and it mentioned “renowned British poet James Fenton.”

I must say, I have never heard of the guy."

This kind of thing happens to me all the time.

John wrote: "It’s funny in a way. I am a renter these days and plan to live out my days as a renter. I have one bookcase of bookcase. I may buy a slightly larger and nicer bookcase and donate my current one. I ..."

John, in some ways, I do envy your minimalism. After having gotten rid of thousands of books, I still have many more than I will ever read .... especially since more than 90 percent of the books I read these days are ebooks.

John wrote: "He certainly covered a lot of ground and was highly respected by other writers. His work on poetry textbooks was very good and he was influential in seeing other writers and poets get their start. I must say, though, that I rarely see his poems anthologized and I tend to think he was not highly considered as a poet as he was a writer of fiction and a teacher of poetry. ..."

I read his late-stage works ... the novel, A Place to Come To and the epic poem, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce: A Poem when they were published in 1977 and 1983 respectively. I enjoyed them both. I understand that the novel didn't equal his earlier fiction, e.g. All the King's Men, but truly there are no recent epic poems that I know of to compare the Chief Joseph work with. It's a format that has just disappeared. There are certainly long poems ... Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate comes to mind, but true epics???

Sher wrote: "Hi John:
I very, very much enjoy poets read their own works. I've watched quite a few this year-- I wonder what Louise Gluck would be like...?"

Sher,

I am the same way ... I really think it's great that the site of the Academy of American Poets, poets.org , has the poets reading their own poems.

Larry