The Diary Worth Publishing
I've kept a personal journal for years, and about 15 years ago started rereading and then trashing journals from childhood. Really, they were incredibly boring, repetitious, obsessive. I reread them for my own memories, but felt they simply wouldn't be things I'd like to leave for others to read. There are journals worth reading. The writings of Winston Churchill, of Virginia Woolf, the diaries of Anais Nin, or the journals as novels of Doris Lessing.
However, I've always wanted to have some sort of worthy journal. One friend notes down all the books he's read, movie he's seen, etc., and he makes small notes to himself about his impressions. So:
Diamond, Jared. (2005). Collapse. NY: Penguin Press Science. I read this after having read a manuscript about anxiety disorders, written by a bright and interesting psychiatrist, with whom I'd hope to work on a manuscript, as a copyeditor, editor, co-writer. I started delving back into genetics, biochemistry, etc, having been fascinated by those fields while a premed student in my mid to late 30s, and having lived with a geneticist. The project "didn't go," which was disappointing, but I did enjoy the ride.
Diamond, Jared. (2006). The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal. I read this about a month after the above-disappointment. It again confirmed my sense that in labeling our "outrageous" behavior as primate behavior, we have REALLY MISSED THE POINT. Our most outrageous behavior arises not from our primate selves, but from how our higher brain, our logic, interprets and makes sense of our instincts and primitive selves. Our logic ... and please let me refer you now to Christina Stead's novel The House of All Nations ... is completely generally inane. Not our instincts, but our logic--our wits, and our ability to outwit each other. We could only do this if our brains were bigger than our fingers. The chimps don't have the problems we do. Our problem is NOT our primate nature, but our "human" ie big brain nature.
Perenyi, Eleanor. Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden (Modern Library Gardening). Current publication of someone who wrote in the mid 70s or earlier. Smart, funny, and delectable. What she has to say about people afraid of earthworms, and those who light up their gardens at night, nevermind (I say) about condo associations with street lights on all night (and please refer yourself to the smart souls involved with shutting down street lights that shine upwards ... bunch of Cambridge, MA involved souls, because these lights absolutely destroy the night, and also other things) ... a garden at night is a mystery all to itself. Don't destroy the youthful romantic soul by pouring too much light on it. Nor destroy my night-time walks.
Stead, Christina. 1938. The House of All Nations. And welcome to Wall Street!!!!
Coleman, Eliot; Bray, Kathy. Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long. The book I've been waiting for. I never understood how Maine could be on a relatively same longitude as areas in Spain and France, and yet have a much much shorter growing season. Coleman and his crew reveal what I'd always suspected, and given me the good science basis for it. Cheerios!
Well, that's a small beginning. Of course I read a lot more, and I haven't even started on the movies.
Otherwise, I spent the winter working on my forever perfect house/boathouse design and perusing my very very favorite magazine: Taunton Press's Fine Home Building. What with spring coming, there will be less reading and more gardening and building.
However, I've always wanted to have some sort of worthy journal. One friend notes down all the books he's read, movie he's seen, etc., and he makes small notes to himself about his impressions. So:
Diamond, Jared. (2005). Collapse. NY: Penguin Press Science. I read this after having read a manuscript about anxiety disorders, written by a bright and interesting psychiatrist, with whom I'd hope to work on a manuscript, as a copyeditor, editor, co-writer. I started delving back into genetics, biochemistry, etc, having been fascinated by those fields while a premed student in my mid to late 30s, and having lived with a geneticist. The project "didn't go," which was disappointing, but I did enjoy the ride.
Diamond, Jared. (2006). The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal. I read this about a month after the above-disappointment. It again confirmed my sense that in labeling our "outrageous" behavior as primate behavior, we have REALLY MISSED THE POINT. Our most outrageous behavior arises not from our primate selves, but from how our higher brain, our logic, interprets and makes sense of our instincts and primitive selves. Our logic ... and please let me refer you now to Christina Stead's novel The House of All Nations ... is completely generally inane. Not our instincts, but our logic--our wits, and our ability to outwit each other. We could only do this if our brains were bigger than our fingers. The chimps don't have the problems we do. Our problem is NOT our primate nature, but our "human" ie big brain nature.
Perenyi, Eleanor. Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden (Modern Library Gardening). Current publication of someone who wrote in the mid 70s or earlier. Smart, funny, and delectable. What she has to say about people afraid of earthworms, and those who light up their gardens at night, nevermind (I say) about condo associations with street lights on all night (and please refer yourself to the smart souls involved with shutting down street lights that shine upwards ... bunch of Cambridge, MA involved souls, because these lights absolutely destroy the night, and also other things) ... a garden at night is a mystery all to itself. Don't destroy the youthful romantic soul by pouring too much light on it. Nor destroy my night-time walks.
Stead, Christina. 1938. The House of All Nations. And welcome to Wall Street!!!!
Coleman, Eliot; Bray, Kathy. Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long. The book I've been waiting for. I never understood how Maine could be on a relatively same longitude as areas in Spain and France, and yet have a much much shorter growing season. Coleman and his crew reveal what I'd always suspected, and given me the good science basis for it. Cheerios!
Well, that's a small beginning. Of course I read a lot more, and I haven't even started on the movies.
Otherwise, I spent the winter working on my forever perfect house/boathouse design and perusing my very very favorite magazine: Taunton Press's Fine Home Building. What with spring coming, there will be less reading and more gardening and building.
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