BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: THE JOYS OF READING

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“Reading was such a wonderful thing that to have made a life around the experience was almost criminal and it was so fortunate.”

                          Elizabeth Hardwick

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THE CREATOR OF THE WIZARD OF OZ PREDICTED
THE INVENTION OF THE CELL PHONE

Baum wrote dozens of other novels and short stories, and he had a knack for predicting an impressive number of inventions in his books: the taser, digital calendars, and defibrillators to name a few. In his novel The Master Key, a character even discovers an augmented reality gadget that predates Pokémon GO by a century. But Baum’s most notable prediction comes in Ozma of Oz:

Shaggy … drew from his pocket a tiny instrument which he placed against his ear.

Ozma, observing this action in her Magic Picture, at once caught up a similar instrument from a table beside her and held it to her own ear. The two instruments recorded the same delicate vibrations of sound and formed a wireless telephone, an invention of the Wizard.

TRIVIA GENIUS December 6, 2022

https://www.triviagenius.com/facts-about-the-wizard-of-oz/XzxcDPaawAAGI7SQ?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1657944838

ON THE TITLE ILLYWHACKER

Illywhacker is the title of  of a 1985 novel by Peter Cary .An illwhacker is a conman or trickster. A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialism says that it is derived from‘spieler’a ‘teller of tales, swindler.’

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SAMUEL BECKETT

“Beckett’s work is a single holy book, an absolute of poetry and negation by whose light all else in contemporary literature appears somewhat superfluous and unclear.”

                            John Updike

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“Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.”

                                                 P.J. O’Rourke

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MARK TWAIN’S LOW OPINION OF JAMES
FENIMORE COOPER’S THE DEERSLAYER

“In one place Deerslayer, and in the restricted space of two-thirds of a page, Cooper has scored 114 offenses against literary art out of 115. It breaks the record.”

Mark Twain. How to Tell a Story and other essays (1897)

See The Book of Lists by David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace (New York: Cannongate, 2005)
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ON THE FIRST BOOK TO MAKE AN IMPRESSION ON TALLULAH BANKHEAD

“The first book to make an impression on me was Grimm’s Fairy Tales. I was a sponge for Shakespeare’s poetry. It wasn’t long before I was spouting, ‘Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou, Romeo?…Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face; else would a maiden blush’ and ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen! Lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him…’

Tullalah Bankhead. Tallulah: My Autobiography (NewYork: Harper & Row, 1952)
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THE 6 ½ OLD PETER (PIRA) IN THE NOVEL
THE STONE WORLD by JOEL AGEE

“One of his favorite books was Just So Stories. Every once in awhile, the person telling the stories said ‘Best Beloved’ or ‘O Best Beloved,’ and at those moments Pira always felt a special pleasure, as if he was being addressed in the most kind and respectful way imaginable. The way the words were capitalized made them look even grander than they sounded. The ‘O,’ when it came, was like the bow you make before a king: ‘O best beloved!”

Joel Agee. The Stone World (Brooklyn: Melville House, 2020)
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IN PRAISE OF THE BOOK AS AN OBJECT

“It’s obvious to most of us that the book as a form has a great virtue. The paper, the ink, the cover, what Updike called ‘the charming little clothing box of the thing’ — we understand without  having it pointed out how much they add to the experience of reading. No congregation will ever celebrate the Torah in paperback,”

D.T. May. “The Electronic Book” in The American Scholar (Summer 2000)

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SHERLOCK HOLMES RECOMMENDS A BOOK

“Let me recommend this book — one of the most remarkable ever penned. It is Winwood Reade’s Martydom of Man.”

in THE SIGN OF THE FOUR

The Martyrdom of Man by William Winwood Reade

A book of the author`s thoughts on the history of the world, with inclusion of some remarkable predictions for the future. Includes chapters on war …

 Rating: 4.1 · ‎120 votes

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BOOKS & OUR BODIES

“Dr. Amy Gore, assistant professor of English at North Dakota State University, will discuss the connections between books, bodies, and Indigenous book history at the release of her latest monograph, Book Anatomy: Body Politics and the Materiality of Indigenous Book History (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023). From a book’s “spine” to its “appendix,” bibliographers use a language of the body that reveals our intimate connection with books. Yet books do more than describe bodies—they embody a frontline of colonization in which indigenous authors battle the public perception and reception of indigenous peoples. Starting with John Rollin Ridge’s The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta (1854) as the first novel published by a Native author …””

from News, Events, and Exhibitions at the Grolier Club (November 22, 2023)

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Dear Editors:

   I have not met Jeff Tweedy, but based upon his responses to “By the Book,” I know I would like him very much. Our conversation might start with shared experiences of reading encyclopedias, I still keep in my bedroom volume 4 of The World Book, (1941). It covers the letter D, from Dachshund thru Dysprosium,see Chemistry (elements), pages 1804 to 2070 of 18 volumes with many b&w photographs & illustrations. I doubt that the book will be made into a major motion picture, but I treasure it.Mr. Tweedy would too.

Sincerely,

Louis Phillips

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EPIGRAPH TO DARK STAR by Alan Furst

“You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” 

              Lev Bronstein (June 1919)

SPEED READING EMILY DICKINSON

Because I cd  not  understand
Poetry, alas --
I took university courses 
Where I learned to read really fast --

More than 1,000 words per minute:
Dickinson, Emily--
14 verses at a glance --
Nature, ships, snakes, family --

The whole shebang in 12 seconds.
I knew much haste.
Do people spend a lot of time
On rhymey stuff? What a waste!

I paused upon a line that seemed
At first a blur--
Its meaning scarcely visible --
Simile? Metaphor?

& then a mad dash. Eccentric.
I sped across quatrains --
Scarcely intelligible,
Then a riddle about a train --

Since then -- One minute later --
Yet feels incredibly long--
Since I first surmised --
How quickly we absorb a song; 

I skimmed a naked robin, 
Time left to watch Dune.
I'm done with that ditsy dame.
Who's next? John Donne?

 I'll give him 16 seconds, no more:
 Read all his poems,then out the door.

Louis Phillips