I love office supplies. When I was a kid and my parents used to offer us a treat of anything we wanted, I always picked a pen or paper. I remember that I did this because I knew we did not have much money and one could usually find a nice, but cheap pen. But, I suspect it is really because I loved pens and paper even then. I had dolls but could never really figure out how to play with them but could always find activities that involved pens and paper.
I have a large collection of notebooks but am partial to Moleskines. The size is great, I tend to use the larger size, the pocket in the back is handy (I like to carry grid index cards with me), and the elastic keeps the notebook together. I mostly use them now for school (I am in an online Library Science program at Drexel University) but I always carry at least one notebook with me. I do often carry a second with me for miscellaneous jottings. For example, now that I work in a library, I use visits to book stores as a way of gathering information on the books that I want to read next, but get them from the library.
There is a Staples in the outdoor shopping center where we do most of our book shopping and we visit that at least once a week. They have just started a great new line of journals of all types: some are pocket-sized, others are faux Moleskines and there are also wonderful casebound notebooks (I am left-handed so spiral notebooks are not ideal for me). I was so excited to see this new display with so many choices so reasonably priced.
There is something glorious about a new notebook--it is an opportunity to start fresh. With a new notebook, a good pen is essential and I have lately been using the Pilot V7 retractable gel pens. It is a needle point pen and the point is just perfect for me and it dries quickly which is very important for a left-hander.
I suppose it is a benign addiction although I worry that I collect so many that our house will resemble a jumble shop. My favorite TV episode ever was one on Homicide: Life on the Street. A man fought another man for a pen; the detectives could not imagine this as a motive for murder but when they went to the house of the alleged murdered, there were pens all over---on the walls, the lamps, the tables and even strung on string and ribbon between the walls. The murder part was inconceivable and as an addiction, it was gloriously strange, but more believable to us office supply junkies that addictions to some other things.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
The Bloomsday Dead by Adrian McKinty
The Bloomsday Dead is set in Ireland on Bloomsday, June 16. Michael Forsythe, the protagonist is back, and is asked by Bridget Callaghan to find her kidnapped daughter. Forsythe was the main character in two other McKinty books, Dead I May Well Be and The Dead Yard.
Like Ulysses, this is a novel set on one day (although Ulysses lacks the body count of The Bloomsday Dead). Bridget is his Molly/Penelope and Michael is struggling to find home and end his search.
The Bloomsday Dead conforms to the thriller format, but it the writing that is most thrilling in these books. There were passages where Michael is alone thinking about his past, his future and the loneliness of the landscape that are mythic in quality. It is strange, for me, to find these books that are so violent and to be so poetic as well.
Like Ulysses, this is a novel set on one day (although Ulysses lacks the body count of The Bloomsday Dead). Bridget is his Molly/Penelope and Michael is struggling to find home and end his search.
The Bloomsday Dead conforms to the thriller format, but it the writing that is most thrilling in these books. There were passages where Michael is alone thinking about his past, his future and the loneliness of the landscape that are mythic in quality. It is strange, for me, to find these books that are so violent and to be so poetic as well.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Grace (Eventually)
I was late to reading Anne Lamott. I had twelve years of religious schooling and was active in my church--I sang in the choir, prepared the vestments for the services and attending services during some seasons on a daily basis. But even then I struggled with belief--religion, for me, was about doing good or for being a force for good in the world. I had a very difficult time accepting and understanding faith.
I knew of Anne Lamott as a believer and shied away from her books for that reason. I enjoy books about religion, but they tend to be about history, or theology or the politics of religion, but I avoid books written by believers about their beliefs.
Lamott is a believer but she is also a luminous writer and that is what drew me to her. Her chapters are short, like meditations, and they show someone grappling with life and with her faith--that is not quite right, she has accepted her faith and is strong in it, but wonders sometimes why her faith does not make things better in her life and in the world.
She confirms her faith through family, what we used to call good works and hiking and enjoying nature and those are things that I can understand even if I can't really understand faith. But perhaps it is that she accepts faith on her own terms and not other people's terms and that shows me that I may be a believer but in only in my own way.
I knew of Anne Lamott as a believer and shied away from her books for that reason. I enjoy books about religion, but they tend to be about history, or theology or the politics of religion, but I avoid books written by believers about their beliefs.
Lamott is a believer but she is also a luminous writer and that is what drew me to her. Her chapters are short, like meditations, and they show someone grappling with life and with her faith--that is not quite right, she has accepted her faith and is strong in it, but wonders sometimes why her faith does not make things better in her life and in the world.
She confirms her faith through family, what we used to call good works and hiking and enjoying nature and those are things that I can understand even if I can't really understand faith. But perhaps it is that she accepts faith on her own terms and not other people's terms and that shows me that I may be a believer but in only in my own way.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Plum Wine
I just finished reading Plum Wine by Angela Davis-Gardner. It is set in Japan in the 1960s and is the story of a young American woman from North Carolina who is spending the year teaching there. Barbara Jefferson is described as not interested in politics and she finds herself trying to explain the war in Vietnam to her students and learning about the bombing of Hiroshima from people who were present and greatly affected. There is a kind of mystery; Barbara inherits a chest filled with plum wine and journal entries from a colleague and she begins a relationship with a man who helps her translate the documents. Why did she inherit the chest and what are the motivations of the man helping her?
However, the core of the novel is the experience of war, its long-term effects and the difficulty of people to understand the experiences of others. Davis-Gardner does not explicitly compare Hiroshima with Vietnam, but one character talks about how napalm affects its victims and the comparison of the burns from napalm and the burns from the Hiroshima bomb are simply there for the reader to make the connection.
One of the things that amazed me the most when I visited the Peace Musem in Hiroshima was the inclusion of pavement that had shadows burned onto them by the heat of the bomb--reading about the temperature and other facts of the bomb did not have the same impact on me as this simple visual image. For Barbara, reading the translations of her friend's documents and talking with the Hiroshima survivors helps her understand the direct effects of war. Or, more specifically, she learns the stories of the survivors but realizes that she can never really understand their experiences.
However, the core of the novel is the experience of war, its long-term effects and the difficulty of people to understand the experiences of others. Davis-Gardner does not explicitly compare Hiroshima with Vietnam, but one character talks about how napalm affects its victims and the comparison of the burns from napalm and the burns from the Hiroshima bomb are simply there for the reader to make the connection.
One of the things that amazed me the most when I visited the Peace Musem in Hiroshima was the inclusion of pavement that had shadows burned onto them by the heat of the bomb--reading about the temperature and other facts of the bomb did not have the same impact on me as this simple visual image. For Barbara, reading the translations of her friend's documents and talking with the Hiroshima survivors helps her understand the direct effects of war. Or, more specifically, she learns the stories of the survivors but realizes that she can never really understand their experiences.
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