Am Reading

“Why should a coral snake need two glands of neurotoxic poison to survive while a…

“Without trails, we would be lost.”Robert Moor, On Trails, 2016 This book represents Moor’s extended…

“Although I am tempted to linger, if I am distracted by the reveries for too…

“The great secret of the desert is that it often sings quietly, offering sweet melodies…

“Sometimes the things we think are lost are only hidden, waiting to be rediscovered.”Anthony Doerr,…

“Leave North America’s continental plate behind.”Keith Hansen, Birds of Point Reyes, 2023 Point Reyes National…

“He felt the creeping of fate, the circling of wolves, the hover of vultures.”John Steinbeck,…

“All animals are equal.”George Orwell, Animal Farm, 1945 Orwell never intended for Animal Farm to…

“Pedro Romero had the greatness. He loved bull-fighting, and I think he loved the bulls,…

“The mountain air was in my nostrils, the evergreens above, and the eternal rocks around;…

“There are hills, rounded, blunt, burned, squeezed up out of chaos, chrome and vermilion painted,…

“At one time and another in what now approached fifteen years, Moores and I would…

“When I reached Yosemite, all the rocks seemed talkative, and more telling and lovable than…

“John,” she said, “does it make every one-unhappy when they study and learn lots of…

“ConaLee, there is no forever. We are on our walk and the day is fine.…

“Early one bright morning in the middle of Indian summer, while the glacier meadows were…

“The ‘Red Death’ had long devastated the country.” Edgar Allan Poe, The Masque of the…

“Because he had enjoyed almost every advantage since birth, one of the few privileges denied…

“And so you begin to shift into hiking time, it’s altered state of consciousness. Sierra…

“I was inked with the shit prints of life.” – Chapter 29 Barbara Kingsolver, Demon…

Iron Man at the First Robotics Regionals /// I’m at the First Robotics Regionals where…

Jonathan Hickman (and others), X-Men, 2023 /// Picked up some X-Men comics at my local…

“Aunt Hager Williams stood in her doorway and looked out at the sun. The western…

When in Tahoe…

“The old aunts lounge in the white wicker armchairs, flipping open their fans, snapping them…

“Night. District Three of the Ho Chi Minh Autonomous Trade Zone.” Ray Naylor, The Mountain…

“i remember circle at me first blood, ah. then i was young.” Paul Kingsnorth, Alexandria,…

“Johnny, I got your address from your mother who asked I’d say hello.” James Yorkston,…

“The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible…

“On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays it was Court Hand and Summulae Logicales, while the rest…

“The sky above the port was the color of television tuned to a dead channel.”…

“I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as…

Planning 2023

“You left them alone in the apartment?” Tess says. Lynn Steger Strong, 2022 /// In…

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve…

“Once upon a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith.” Robert A. Heinlein,…

“I know I’m not an ordinary ten-year-old kid.” R. J. Palacio, Wonder, 2012 /// Entering…

“When Red wins, she stands alone.” Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, This Is How You…

“Thomas Wazhashk removed his thermos from his armpit and set it on the steel desk…

“Until Joe Mouffreau, I never thought I’d have a mortal enemy again.” Josh Ritter, The…

“My Dear Friend, You’ll never believe who I shot out of a crossbow today.” M.…

“After Farmer Flint of the Middle Valley died, his widow stayed on at the farmhouse.”…

“In the court of the fountain the sun of March shone through young leaves of…

“Come home, Tenar! Come home!” Ursula K. Le Guin, The Tombs of Atuan, 1971 ///…

“The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the…

“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they…

“Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.” Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, 1925 ///…

Rorschach’s journal: “Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city…

“When he climbed up the deck ladderthat first morning, his shirt still smelledof his mother’s…

“Mrs. Frisby, the head of a family of field mice, lived in an underground house…

“They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did. But we…

“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.” Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, 1847…

“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” C. S.…

“A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head.” A…

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet…

“I met Socrates, all washed and brushed, and wearing shoes (a thing he hardly ever…

“When I was six years old, I came across a beautiful picture in a book…

“Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.” A Christmas…

“When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone,…

“Vivian Bearing walks on the empty stage pushing her IV pole.” Wit, A play by…

“Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was…

“How these papers have been placed in sequence will be made clear in the reading…

“On my return from the first exploration of the canyons of the Colorado, I found…

“These stories are true. Although I have left the strict line of historical truth in…

“Serene was a word you could put to Brooklyn, New York. Especially in the summer…

“A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are…

“One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it:…

“I’m sixteen and Sasha’s seventeen and we go out to the beach at night and…

“Even in death the boys were trouble.” Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys /// If The…

The bees build in the crevicesOf loosening masonry, and thereThe mother birds bring grubs and…

“Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank,…

“I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted…

“At eight o’clock Joseph and Kenneth come into the store. They come almost every Tuesday.…

“The Trinity Alps Wilderness is a congressionally designated wilderness area within the Wilderness Preservation System.”…

“However you came by this document — nailed to your door in the night, stamped…

“Having lost all my shipboard journals in the disaster of nine days ago, I will…

“A, a (ā). n. The first letter of the English alphabet; from the Greek alpha,…

“Alexei Fyodoravich Karamazov was the third son of a landowner from our district, Fyodor Pavlovich…

“They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care; They pursued it with forks…

“First there was nothing. Then there was everything. Then, in a park above a western…

“The whole of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons was a project which involved varying degrees of…

“You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of…

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new…

“TOM!”No answer.“What’s gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!”No answer. /// We’ve been enjoying…

“The man for wisdom’s various arts renown’d,Long exercised in woes, O Muse! resound;Who, when his…

“Achilles’ wrath, to Greece the direful springOf woes unnumber’d, heavenly goddess, sing!That wrath which hurl’d…

“My brother had just been appointed Secretary of Nevada Territory — an office of such…

“If no other knowledge deserves to be called useful but that which helps enlarge our…

“And many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches off the…

“‘To strive — to seek — to find — and not to yield’ caught my…

“In the great Central Valley of California there are only two seasons — Spring and…

“From where I sit, the story of Arthur Less is not so bad.” – Andrew…

Henry David Thoreau “I started on my third excursion to the Maine woods Monday, July…

“This is the hour of pride and power, Talon and tush and claw /// Oh…

“When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his…

“Why William, on that old grey stone,Thus for length of half a day,Why William, sit…

“Roger, aged seven, and no longer the youngest of the family, ran in wide zigzags,…

“I have just returned from a visit to my landlord – the solitary neighbour that…

“the night was clere though i slept i seen it.” – Paul Kingsnorth /// The…

Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The…

“One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now…

“Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.” – Dickens

Celebrating Black Friday with E.H.

“I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and…

“In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village…

“Nobody would be prepared to maintain that in studying the development of political society in…

“… it seemed to Mr. Smith, dancing from foot to foot upon deck, that the…

Taking time out of the news cycle to listen