An Old Dog Barks Backwards and 3 Dogs on a Bushwalk

 Happy Halloween everybody.  Halloween is such an American holiday that the Australians haven't quite figured it out.  So I will just issue the greeting here and hope you've had a good day doing something fun.

First published 1973

Being the last day of October I am finished with my October challenge (here).  I actually did better with it than I thought I might.  I read the King Penguin but didn't get the photos or review posted up. I will save it for another day.  I also wrote most of the Uncle Remus review but haven't posted it up, again, another time. I don't like to rush Uncle Remus because it has always been a favourite book of mine.

The other goal was to make up some books for 2013 reading based on the non fiction book called You've Got To Read This Book.  All I can say about that is this book is not a list of books with summaries. It is a series of essays from various writers stating what they have read and what they think the people of the world should also read.
I decided after having a good look at it that instead of choosing their books for my Classics Challenge (here) starting in 2013 that instead I would pick my own titles.

The two goals I did finish up with today were taking a nature walk with the dogs and my camera and I also finished a book with an author whose last name begins with the letter N.

The author with the letter N is Ogden Nash.  The book is The Old Dog Barks Backwards. Ogden Nash is another author I enjoy reading who is light hearted, very clever and I would put him on the same shelf with James Thurber, another favourite and O. Henry who I mentioned yesterday.

Ogden Nash- American writer
1902-1971

Ogden Nash (Frederic Ogden Nash), according to Wikipedia, was an American writer born in 1902 and died from a bacterial infection from a 'misprepared' cole slaw in 1971 which aggravated his Crohn's disease.

He lived most of his life in Baltimore although he was originally born in Georgia. He descended from General Francis Nash who gave his name to the city of Nashville, Tennessee. (Quite a bit of trivia happening here).

His style is generally described as "pun like rhymes with words often misspelled for comic effect." He loved baseball, with the Baltimore Orioles being his favoured team and he wrote of social issues based on newspaper headlines and other current afffairs. He did not approve of employers who treated their employees badly. He was once known to say, "People who stand up on the their jobs make less money than those who sit down."

The book, The Old Dog Barks Backwards is a great deal of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The publisher describes him as a "social observer of the sharpest insight, whose humour, sanity and cheerful cynicism appealed to countless numbers of people of all ages."

The Dog Barks Backwards is a posthumous collection of 77 Nash verses, many of which have been published in magazines but none of which has ever appeared in book form.

It is easy to see what a well read man Mr. Nash was while reading this book as he mentions quite a few literary figures in the verses within the book.

I thought I would share one I particular enjoyed about the writer Balzac because it is very clever and quite funny.

AND LO! HONORE'S NAME LED ALL THE REST

Robert Binks- Illustrator

"Myself when young was prone to conform to youthful mores:
Consequently, my acquaintance with Balzac was limited to his opus best adapted to youthful tastes, "Droll Stories."
Yet even then I understood that as a novelist he was undoubtedly major,
And I vowed that to read his complete works would be my project when I should matriculate at some Sunset Haven as a retiree and Golden Ager.
Because, to be truly cultured,  a person should read the complete works of at least one major man of letters, or so they say,
And I decided that on my literary menu Balzac should be the specialite.

I planned to devote each weekend from Vendredi through Samedi to "The Human Comedy";
I looked forward with a wild surmise
To meeting "Cousin Bette" and "Cousin Pons," to say nothing of "The Girl with the Golden Eyes";
Also, if only to discover what its title denotes, 
"The House of the Cat Who Pelotes."

I should then have absorbed all Balzac, there could be no more.
But now I suddenly find that besides  Honore'de there was another Balzac: Seigneur Jean Louis Guez (gaz) de, 1597 (?) - 1654,
And that praise for his prose was once on every literate lip,
Chiefly because he wrote "The Barbon"and "The Aristippe."

That's too many Balzacs for one gray head; I shall turn instead to the plays of Sir William Davenant,
And should you ask me if I have read anything by either Balzac other than "Droll Stories,"well, I
havenant."


Regarding his attitude to social concerns one of the humorous poems he wrote is quite short and sweet and I would venture to say continues to be quite relevant in current times.

GOOSE POPULATION GAINS HIGH LEVEL

(Headline from The New York Times)

He often chose news headlines and then wrote comic verses about them

"Besides pollution and erosion
We now must face a goose explosion.
A glut of geese can play the devil
With national life on every level,
Especially in politics,
Where geese and government intermix.
This solemn thought I introduce:
The higher the level, the bigger the goose."

**************************************************************************

Last but not least, after reading such a delightful, comic book I decided to enjoy the 19 degrees we have here today (celsius) and took the dogs for a run up the back to the fire trails. All of us felt like some fresh air.

No need to say anything else but enjoy the photos. 

The fire trail goes up towards Mt. Wellington.

Two of them weren't keen about getting their feet wet,
but one splashed through the water as though he was
born to it.

The beautiful shadings of the gum tree.

The muddy fire track and a very functional tree trunk.

Home.

Great American Short Stories: The Gift of the Magi

photo from Wikpedia
Gift of the Magi published in 1906

I think every student in the United States must read O. Henry's short story the Gift of the Magi at one time or another.  It seems to be the prime example of explaining irony to students and I must say I never forgot it. I also never revisited it again.

So as part of my October challenge (here) to discuss a short story I pulled a book off the shelves called Great American Short Stories: From Hawthorne to Hemingway.

It has a myriad of stories in it authored by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Henry James, Sarah Orne Jewett, Mary Wilkins Freeman, O. Henry, Edith Wharton, Stephen Crane, Jack London, Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.

All of them are brilliant authors and I have had this book in a TBR pile for a very long time. Yesterday I pulled it off the shelf and saw the two stories listed by O. Henry.

O. Henry has been a favourite American author of mine since I was a teenager. He has very quirky stories with even quirkier, not always ironic endings. He took up writing seriously in 1898 when imprisoned for three years for embezzlement whilst working in a bank.
I have always enjoyed his writing and the substance of his stories.
If you haven't read a story by him (his real name is William Sydney Porter) I hope you find one and see what you think.

The Gift of the Magi is a story of a newly  married couple, Della and Jim Dillingham Young who are very much in love but quite poor.   It is the day before Christmas and both want very much to give a gift to their partner but can't afford it.

However the couple do have two cherished possessions. One is Della's very long hair, silky, brown and waist length and Jim has the pocket watch that both his grandfather and father passed on to him and they cherish it.

In desperation Della decides to sell her hair to attain money for a gift for Jim. She receives $20.00 for her hair and rushes into the shops happily finding a beautiful fob and chain for Jim's watch. After work Jim also rushes to the shops and finds the perfect gift for Della.

When he returns on Christmas Eve he is amazed to see Della with a very short bobbed haircut with curls she has created with a curling iron.  Della is very happy as she hands him his gift and he unwraps the beautiful watch fob and chain.  However he says to Della that he sold his watch in order to raise the funds needed to buy her a gift which is a beautiful set of tortoiseshell combs for her hair.

In the end, they embrace, full of love and simply decide to put the gifts away to enjoy when once again he has a watch and she has long hair.

"Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.

Ïsn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch.  I want to see how it looks on it."

Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.

"Dell," said he, "let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the  money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on. "

O. Henry

O. Henry wrote; "The magi, as you know, were wise men - wonderfully wise men- who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi. "

 I enjoyed rereading this story again after so many years and was happy to rediscover some wonderful memories from the time spent at a young age hearing this story for the first time.  Ironically I wasn't ever the top student in my classes but I did enjoy much about school. I just seemed to have an overpowering social life that interfered with studies.  I look forward to rereading some of the other stories in this lovely book. 

Examined Nature and Found Many Penguins

Nothing like starting the day in the sun.

Today is an absolutely spectacular sunny day in Tasmania. Woke up this morning to sun streaming through the windows and my pets loving it.
Fed them, fed myself and hopped onto my Beo scooter and headed for Kingston for the "monster" book sale advertised in the newspaper. Beautiful ride to Kingston which is about 20 minutes south but unfortunately I didn't find even one Penguin.

Hopped back onto the bike and headed back through Hobart, across the Tasman bridge to the Willows Tavern to catch up with the Ulysses club which is a bike club for 'growing old disgracefully" persons.

The Bothwell-Kempton area. Beautiful isn't it. 

As the group was split between going away camping this week-end and staying behind to ride on Sunday we had a fairly small group, maybe a dozen bikes. We headed into the Derwent Valley to Hamilton for the first stop of the day at the bakery for morning tea.  The food is good but it is pricey. I only had a drink as I didn't need food yet.

Then we took the route east towards Bothwell where the few left stopped to sit outdoors in the sun in front of another bakery and I headed south towards Hobart as I wanted to stop off at a small country second hand book shop I have been meaning to get to for ages.

This little shop has been in existence for a little over 20 years and is a small building in the man's yard. It has lovely old books in it and when I asked if he had any old Penguins his reply was, "Heaps".

Kempton Bookshop with treasures inside

He was right, there were heaps and I bought heaps.  He is a charming book seller who doesn't tend to hoard his books by putting such high prices onto them that noone will ever remove them from his possession. The books are carefully selected and laid out in a manner which are easy to find. It is a charming little shop where I listened to the sound of his typewriter as I was able to take as much time as I needed to examine all of the Penguins.
He had one good sized shelf just for Penguins and there were many more scattered throughout the shop that I will have a closer look at the next time I am up that way.

The Penguin Shelf

Not only are the books reasonably priced but he gave me a decent sized discount as well for buying so many.  I  had a really good day.  A long bike ride in the sun and a pile of old Penguins at the end of it.

On the way home I took my time through the lovely countryside that is Tasmania and enjoyed 'nature' stopping to study a goshawk and an echidna.  One of my goals on my October challenge (here) was to be aware of nature and I was surrounded by it today.

                                                                                   

A goshawk

Koko loves it when I dump my "new"Penguin books
on the floor to sort them. Notice the map of Tasmania on
Koko's  face. The white above his eyes is Bass Strait.

Next time one of you drives down the midlands of Tasmania be sure to stop into this old book shop in Kempton. It is one block back off the main road through the town and there is a sign. Or ask anyone as everyone in the town would know its location.

Ethan Frome - My Review

Our November book group read is Ethan Frome. I had not read anything by Edith Wharton but have always heard what a great writer she was.  Ms. Wharton was born in the middle of the American Civil War in 1962 in New York City.  When researching Ms. Wharton on-line one of the things that came across quite clearly was the impact her mother had on her life and her writing. Her mother evidently, always preached that lying was a sin yet whenever she told the truth she was severely punished.

It is stated that this impacted on her throughout her life and into her writing. Ms. Wharton had a marriage of convenience to a man 12 years her senior and was reportedly very unhappy. She had a three year relationship with another man she termed , "The love of her life" though was quite  disappointed by him as well.  As a lady of leisure most of her life she didn't have a very happy relationship with the world.

I enjoyed the book Ethan Frome.  Wikipedia states that Ms. Wharton always described this book more as a fable or a tale rather than a novel.  

The story takes place in a fictional town called Starkfield in New England.  A narrator who we never learn much about tells the story based on a stay he has with the family when stranded by a snowstorm. 

The book goes from a first person narration to a third person and then back to first person again at the end.

As I read this book I felt as though I was in Ethan's pocket as everything seemed very real to me. Ethan could have been a real person and this, his biography as far as I was concerned.  

He lives with his wife Zeena and eventually Mattie who is Zeena's younger cousin comes to stay. Zeena is a complete hypochondriac, whining and complaining about everything in her life. She does such an excellent job of this I found as a reader, I walked around as heavily as she did.  She is an extremely depressive character and does absolutely nothing to make anything better in her life.

Ethan does not seem to have the skills or forbearance to deal with her and he is as downtrodden as she is. I was always asking myself, Why is he so weak? and Why doesn't he make a move?  He is so completely  mired down in his wife's poor health he cannot see Zeena surviving if he leaves to make a new life for himself. He is very trapped in this marriage simply because he feels there is no other way out.

Of course it is inevitable that Ethan will become very attracted, falling in love with Mattie and at every turn he is thwarted from acting upon his thoughts and emotions. 

The reader isn't certain until  later on if Mattie reciprocates these feelings but as the book progresses it all becomes very clear.

The story is quite circular with an incredibly ironic ending that I thought was perfect. It is difficult to say anything without spoiling the story and to know the ending before reading this book would completely ruin it.

I realised I had heard a couple of chapters read on the ABC radio and forgotten it as I did not hear the entire book. So when the sledding scene arrived I knew exactly what was going to happen. It was a bit of a foot stomping moment but I still didn't know the final ending of this book so was not overly disappointed.

The locale of this book can only be described as incredibly depressing and bleak and as the reader is drawn very  much into the misery of the entire situation one wonders if there will be any escape. Is there?  You will just need to read it to find out.  I really enjoyed this story.


This review is part of my goals for October challenge (here) .

Cygnets and Penguins and a bit of a Catch Up

Well, the month of October seems to be speeding by and today I had to look at my October challenge (here) of items to complete. Not sure if I'll get the 15 books finished but I'm having a great time finding new Penguins and reading the books I do have on hand.

I have finished another five goals this past week so am happy with that and definitely on track. A couple of others are half done.
Letter D:
Dog's Day at the Beach - Spring is here and time to take the dogs to the beach -  Unfortunately we couldn't go to the beach because one of my dogs, Molly, injured her eye when she ran into a stick amongst a pile of branches we had pruned. So no sand in her eye allowed. However they were allowed at the big cricket/soccer oval at Cornelian Bay and they love that ground as much as the beach.  They played frisbee, ran in high speed figure 8 loops and rolled in things they thought smelled bad. Probably possum or rabbit poo. But they sure had fun and we had a great time watching them. Tongues were hanging out all around.


Next goal was letter F:
Fuller's Book Shop Event: There are many things on in October. Be sure to attend one or two.

Her latest book.

I booked myself into two events but unfortunately was quite ill for the first one so I missed it. But I did manage to get to the second one which was an evening with the Australian author Lily Brett. Lily Brett is an amazing author who was raised in Australia but moved to New York City 22 years ago.  She was born to Jewish German parents and during WWII both of her parents survived the Nazi death camps, however the rest of her family of aunts, uncles and cousins were not so fortunate and perished.
  
Ms. Brett sang deep praises of her husband whom she has been with for many years, talked about how she writes the books and the ideas for her books as well as telling the audience how much the war years and death camp experiences of her parents affected her during her youth and young adulthood.  She was humorous, refreshingly articulate and really down to earth. Everyone there enjoyed her company and all lined up afterwards to have her latest book signed.  My other half is reading it now but I plan to get going on it as soon as I can.  

Some of her previous books

We skirted the rain as we came over the rise into
Cygnet.

Penguin hunter Scarabeo
in the background. Close to 40,000 kms
hunting for these elusive books.

The next challenge on the list was to ride the Penguin Hunter Scooter down to Cygnet as I heard there was a shop down there that had Penguins on the bookshelves at the back.

Today was a lovely sunny day though quite windy and rain due later a couple of us headed out about lunchtime for the trip south. Cygnet is a lovely small town about an hour's drive south. We took the coast road which was clear of traffic and has beautiful views of farmland and the Tasman Sea.

The shop I had heard about had one vintage Penguin but I had it already so the penguin hunting wasn't very good. However I did meet the lovely owner who said she'd ring me if any vintage Penguins come in and her

prices were good. 

We then left Cygnet for Huonville which is about 20 minutes north of Cygnet on the way back to Hobart. There is a large second hand bookshop there and the place is like a tip.  Books stacked up in every manner, very little room to walk around and as more books come in they are simply piled higher and higher on the very crowded shelf.  I went to the area of the shop where I know the Penguins to be and happily came across several I didn't have.  I also noticed the prices were a few dollars less per book this visit. 

Book sellers are finally starting to learn that people will not pay a lot of  money for old beat up Penguins. 

And as for the next two goals, Letter T: Tend to garden and plant some veggies and V for vote in the USA presidential election.

As my ballot wings its way across the Pacific to the state of Florida where I am still a registered voter although I am also a citizen in Australia (so I can try to get my choice in office in both countries), the lettuce, silverbeet and some strawberries are growing as I type.

I won't linger any longer as this post has been a bit long and if you're still at the end, thanks.  It is good to tick things off the list. So until next time...... stay warm in the northern hemisphere and continue to enjoy the ride to summer in the south.