Two new books just arrived, research fodder for a class paper I’m writing on archaeological excavations done at Johnson’s Island military prison. The Johnson’s Island site covers a 16.5-acre Civil War-era military prison camp on…
My wife got us tickets to a preview screening last week of The Call of the Wild, a film adaptation of Jack London’s novel, directed by Chris Sanders, written by Michael Green, and starring Harrison…
My literary book club did Dickens last week, focusing on A Christmas Carol. I was glad I wasn’t the only one who felt compelled, when I read it, to read it aloud, or at least…
Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems, You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions …
I’ve been reading Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad for a literary book club. I’d never read it before, although I love great travel writing like John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley, Jonathan Raban’s Old Glory (an…
I think one of the side effects of being a lifelong reader, is a certain level of introversion. Or maybe it’s the other way round. At any rate, I tend to avoid highly social settings,…
