“A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou.”
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam said it so much more poetically than my headline. Worse, I don’t drink and am not feeling like bread, so forget the wine and the loaf. That said, here’s my list of joys for today, Carly included.
–The good e-book: Carly might go for a Jane Austen, if she were awake now and in the mood, or maybe a Jean Auel p-book; I, for something from Charles Dickens, George Gissing, Sinclair Lewis, Scott Fitzgerald (recommended public domain work: either This Side of Paradise or The Beautiful and the Damn) or Pat Conroy (well outside the public domain).
Wait. So what’s up with Norman Mailer and A Castle in the Forest? His Hitler book (no e-book out right now, apparently) is a “must” on my to-read list.
I’m sorry not to feel more modern, adventurous or fashionable at this moment in my choice of authors (Conroy is the youngest of the living writers mentioned above). Besides, I’m not an academic, acquisitions librarian or literary agent, and on this Saturday I’d prefer to read for pleasure, nothing more, once I’ve finished up a LibraryCity-related memo (you can bet that real librarians with varying tastes will shape LC’s collection!).
Speaking of books, here’s the latest schedule of OPAL chatcats, with works coming up by Sandra Cisneros, Cecelia Ahern and Sir Walter Scott.
—Pocket Tunes Deluxe, which plays on my Palm TX. Like Bob Russell at MobileRead, I love the new version with the Internet Tuner, and it’s reasonably easy enough to make bookmarks, so you’re not confined to the choices in the tuner.”
–The new Radio Shack High-Fidelity Table-Top AM/FM Radio, a clone of a $119.99 Tivoli model. No, this is not genuine high-fi, not with just a three-inch speaker, despite all the acoustical design tricks inside the box, and it’s monaural, but it sounds fine with my iPod or the audio output of the Palm. Granted, the Radio Shack radio has its faults. For some mysterious reason, an external antenna doesn’t help on FM as much as I’d like, and the sensitivity could be better. But for $69.99 what do you expect? Since I lack an image of the Radio Shack model, I’ll go with a photo of the lowest-price Tivoli equivalent—appropriately atop a pile of books.
Right now I’m playing WGMS through the Palm and wondering how long until Daniel Synder gets his way and lets football triumph over Beethoven. Maybe Babbitt (the Sinclair Lewis classic about American philistinism—and fittingly available in the public domain) is more timely than ever,
–The jug of wine. Your favorite labels? Go ahead with suggestions in the comment area below, if you’d like. Orange juice is more my speed.
–“Thou.” Carly, of course, in my case. Fill in the blank with your own favorite.
