I'm Reading a Book (Julian Smith)

Very few days of my life go by in which I do not read.  I learned at a very young age; even when it was just memorization in the early stages, I understood the power of words and that all one had to do was turn the page to continue the adventure, the escape, the inward musing.

Retirement + pandemic = lots of leisure time, not to mention that for me (although there were moments of lack of focus and loss of concentration), it has become one of my primary coping mechanisms during this self-imposed Shelter in Place the past 9 1/2 months.

For years, I have opted in to the Goodreads Challenge, choosing a-book-a-week (52-a-year) as my goal.  Some years I've gotten close, a few years I've achieved, and this year I will have almost doubled!

When I realized last week that I was at 95 I decided that, if there was ever a time to get into the triple-digits, this was it.  So I am pushing, not cheating, to make that happen.  I confess that the last five books were 200 pages or less, but still legitimate books that were on my Want to Read list/pile anyway.  This is where My Year in Books (2020) currently stands (hoping that, even if you are not on Goodreads, you can see this).  Here's/cheers to 100 books... 💖

I consciously decided to make World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Fumi Nakamura (Illustrator) (a Christmas present from my dear friend Michele), my last book of 2020 (starting it tomorrow morning).

Day One all over again on January 1, with my first book of 2021, A Promised Land by Barack Obama, which I am very much looking forward to.  I carefully curate how I wish to spend my time with the written word, and already have many potential novels as well as works of non-fiction earmarked for my ongoing journey.  I am setting my goal as per my usual book-a-week, thinking positive that I will one day have a social life again, and therefore less time for reading (but I've loved every hour/minute/second of page-turning... 😍 )

NR:  She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs by Sarah Smarsh

SONG:  I'm Reading a Book by Julian Smith (ignore the annoying bagpipes in the last 15 seconds!)

BOOK:  Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount (Illustrator)

POEM:  The Nobel Prize for Reading by Nicanor Parra

The Nobel Prize for Reading

should be awarded to me

I am the ideal reader,

I read everything I get my hands on:

I read street names

and neon signs

bathroom walls

and new price-lists

the police news,

projections for the Derby

and license plates

for a person like me

the word is something holy

members of the jury

what would I gain by lying

as a reader, I'm relentless

I read everything - I don't even skip

the classifieds

of course these days I don't read much

I simply don't have the time

But - oh man - what I have read

that's why I'm asking you to give me

the Nobel Prize for Reading

as soon as impossible

(antitranslated by Lis Werner)

QUOTE:  "My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence." ~ Edith Sitwell

Baby, It's Cold Outside (the James Taylor/Natalie Cole version)

Hi Susan! Here is your Daily Horoscope for Tuesday, January 5:

Though you may be the life of the party on other days, right now you'd rather sit quietly with close family and read or play games. It's not a sign of anything serious -- you just need a break!

It is f*cking freezing here in South Florida - I have not left the house in four days. It is the first time I have turned on the heat in years - with highs in the 50's during the day and lows in the 30's at night, expected to extend through the end of the week, this is not normal!

My bundled-up household attire has ranged from a thermal dress, a long black sweater and some knock-off Uggs I got from Target (rather than springing for the real thing, which cost upwards of $200)... to my cute embellished-on-the-*ss sweatpants, a long-sleeved fleecy nightgown and some chenille slipper socks - over the last few days, I have made a big pot of my ground turkey and vegetable soup... as well as my sister's chicken-corn chowder recipe, both amazingly delicious, nutritious and cold-weather-comforting... but soon I *must* get dressed to venture out to Publix, because I am out of everything (d*mn these menfolk of mine and their appetites... :-)

My friend Stephen is always trying to get me to move north (to the Boston area) and I repeatedly tell him there aren't enough socks in the world - however, it's a nice change of pace to stay inside, watch mindless TV, catch up on wishlist reading and To Do computer stuff... and just generally hibernate (bears and bears and bears, oh my!)...

SONG: Baby, It's Cold Outside by Frank Loesser (and there are a bazillion covers!)

BOOK: Santa Claus: Super Spy--The Case of the Florida Freeze by Ryan Jacobson

POEM: Cold Watercolor by Wyatt Prunty

We saw the birds jockeying for the feeder.
Inside, the networks fed us New Year's Day.
And then there was the snow, in thick raw blots
Down past a row of windows where it caught,
Turning the sills to ridges, as outside
The streets, houses, and yards thickened
From their named and numbered ways into
A watercolor unreadably white . . .
And all the while the manic snow descending,
Sometimes glazed against a pane but mostly
Falling from itself into itself
Under a low, bruised, and indefinite sky . . .

Until the things I watched to measure change,
A recent stump, raised flower beds, porch steps —
Had disappeared, with the snow still falling
And the gray January light fading,
Fusing the trees and houses in one shade . . .
Suddenly a shadow now, beyond the glass
That mirrored us with looking out,
Ourselves out there, watches and rings reversed —
As reporters had the years reversed,
We said, looking out, seeing us looking in.

QUOTE: “Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.” ~ Edith Sitwell