A few years ago I told Carol that we needed more book shelves. I was wrong. I have become a complete convert to e-books and only buy paper when there is something I very much want to read that is not available in an e-edition. Most new paper books are also issued as e-books and many older books no longer in copyright are available from Project Gutenberg and other sources. But there are many in between that remain in limbo, among them some very fine works.
Recently I have reluctantly bought the above five.
If you can’t make out the titles, they are: NORTH TO THE ORIENT and LISTEN! THE WIND by Anne Morrow Lindberg; WARTIME WRITINGS and THE WISDOM OF THE SANDS by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry; and THE HORSE’S MOUTH by Joyce Cary. This last, which was on a recent list of the 100 best British novels and is as I have mentioned my favorite novel about an artist, is the most inexplicable and inexcusable not to be available in an electronic edition.
I’ve already read and enjoyed three of the five and hope to get through the other two before I fly to GANNET. I am delayed by trying to prepare Kindle editions of A SINGLE WAVE and RETURN TO THE SEA, a slow, tedious and often frustrating process because of formatting hidden in the scans of the hard cover books.
Gully Jimson, the main character in THE HORSE’S MOUTH, may have to go to sea with me.
———
When I got up at 5:30 the last few mornings the temperature was 0°F/-18°C and the days did not warm much. However, this morning it was 28°F/-2°C and the afternoon has reached the mid-40sF/7°C.
This is the same temperature it is off Cape Horn, but here it seems by comparison with what we have had remarkably mild. I put on a medium coat, not my winter parka, and took a pleasant walk down to the lake which is calm and pretty in bright sunshine.
------
You will not have noticed the addition of videos to the navigation menu. Neither would I had I not created it.
At present you will find only a lonely link to the Idea Tank interview.
Will there be more in time? I don’t know.
People occasionally ask me to make videos. I have not because I realize that to do so well--and there is no point in doing anything poorly--requires skills that I do not possess and do not have much desire to learn. I am first and foremost a writer. Taking photographs is very secondary. And video far removed. But I may experiment.
If I ever add anything to the nascent video page, I’ll let you know.
