up next
"Well, allow me to introduce myself to you as an advocate of Ornamental Knowledge. You like the mind to be a neat machine, equipped to work efficiently, if narrowly, and with no extra bits or useless parts. I like the mind to be a dustbin of scraps of brilliant fabric, odd gems, worthless but fascinating curiosities, tinsel, quaint bits of carving, and a reasonable amount of healthy dirt. Shake the machine and it goes out of order; shake the dustbin and it adjusts itself beautifully to its new position."
"Book lovers are thought by unbookish people to be gentle and unworldly, and perhaps a few of them are so. But there are others who will lie and scheme and steal to get books as wildly and unconscionably as the dope-taker in pursuit of the drug. They may not want the books to read immediately, or at all; they want them to possess, to range on their shelves, to have at command. They want books as a Turk is thought to want concubines--not to be hastily deflowered, but to be kept at their master's call, and enjoyed more often in thought than in reality."
The last book that hasn't been packed is the Salterton Trilogy, by Robertson Davies. It needs to last until Thursday, so I'm trying to go slowly. I liked the two quotes above.
I'm almost ready to go. Most of my possessions have been moved to Joelle's basement for the next month. My furniture has been sold or given away. I'm eating my way through the remaining food on my shelf in the fridge. On Thursday I will fly home to Norman and spend about a month with my family.
In January, I'll be moving to the farm.
It's about 50 miles South of DC. Here it is from above:
View Larger Map
The yellow path is my commute through the woods. I'll be living in a little house that has been converted from a corn crib. One of the girls who worked on the farm before me kept chickens, so maybe I'll try that. I'll be earning minimum wage, plus housing, gas, water, electric, and access to any of the food that's grown on the farm. I'll be arriving in the middle of winter, which means I need lots of imaginative ways to eat kale, potatoes, turnips, sweet potatoes, celeriac, kohlrabi, collards, lettuce, butternut squash, and sunchokes.
"Book lovers are thought by unbookish people to be gentle and unworldly, and perhaps a few of them are so. But there are others who will lie and scheme and steal to get books as wildly and unconscionably as the dope-taker in pursuit of the drug. They may not want the books to read immediately, or at all; they want them to possess, to range on their shelves, to have at command. They want books as a Turk is thought to want concubines--not to be hastily deflowered, but to be kept at their master's call, and enjoyed more often in thought than in reality."
The last book that hasn't been packed is the Salterton Trilogy, by Robertson Davies. It needs to last until Thursday, so I'm trying to go slowly. I liked the two quotes above.
I'm almost ready to go. Most of my possessions have been moved to Joelle's basement for the next month. My furniture has been sold or given away. I'm eating my way through the remaining food on my shelf in the fridge. On Thursday I will fly home to Norman and spend about a month with my family.
In January, I'll be moving to the farm.
It's about 50 miles South of DC. Here it is from above:
View Larger Map
The yellow path is my commute through the woods. I'll be living in a little house that has been converted from a corn crib. One of the girls who worked on the farm before me kept chickens, so maybe I'll try that. I'll be earning minimum wage, plus housing, gas, water, electric, and access to any of the food that's grown on the farm. I'll be arriving in the middle of winter, which means I need lots of imaginative ways to eat kale, potatoes, turnips, sweet potatoes, celeriac, kohlrabi, collards, lettuce, butternut squash, and sunchokes.
Comments
Sa'am, you're an inspiration.
http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/10/cabbage-and-mushroom-galette/
And while I don't think that you're likely to lie, cheat, or steal to obtain books, I think you understand how comforting it is to be physically surrounded by all of the knowledge and stories contained in books.