"...a shock of banality occurs to many people in my condition ~ that is, people who possess a fairly sizable library (large enough in my case that someone entering our house can't help but notice it;  actually, it takes up the whole place).  The visitor enters and says, 'What a lot of books!  Have you read them all?'  At first I thought that the question characterized only people who had scant familiarity with books, people accustomed to seeing a couple of shelves with five paperback mysteries and a children's encyclopedia bought in installments.  But experience has taught me that the same words can be uttered also by people above suspicion.  It could be said that they are still people who consider a bookshelf as a mere storage place for already read books and do not think of the library as a working tool.  But there is more to it than that.  I believe that, confronted by a vast array of books, anyone will be seized by the anguish of learning and will inevitable lapse into asking the question that expresses his torment and his remorse."

~ Umberto Eco, author, professor of semiotics, University of Bologna. [two essays, 1994]
Source:  A Passion for BOOKS, edited by H. Rabinowitz & R. Kaplan.  1999.  Three Rivers Press/Randomhouse.
[Tomorrow:  Eco's answer to "Have you read them all?"

Authors don't always have it easy ~

Scott Fitzgerald wrote to editor Max Perkins:

Dear Max:

. . .

"My big mistake was in thinking I could possibly deliver this collection for this fall.  I should have known perfectly well that, in debt as I was to the tune of about $12,000 on finishing "Tender," I should have to devote the summer and most of the fall to getting out of it.  My plan was to do my regular work in the daytime and do one story every night, but as it works out, after a good day's work I am so exhausted that I drag out the work on a story to two hours when it should be done in one and go to bed so tired and wrought up, toss around sleepless, and am good for nothing next morning except dictating letters, signing checks, tending to business matters ect; but to work up a creative mood there is nothing doing until about four o'clock in the afternoon."

~ Baltimore, Mayland, November 8, 1934

~ Dear Scott Dear Max/ The Fitzgerald ~ Perkins Correspondence,  Edited by J. Kuehl & J. Bryer.  CASSELL & COMPANY LTD.  1971

You cannot box a sunset.
    It is hard to wrap up snow.
There is no way to package
A lighted candle's glow.
Enjoy each lovely moment
As you walk along the way.
There is a bit of beauty
In every passing day.

~ Joyce Sandeen Johnson

Photo:  Cayuga After the Ice Storm lbw

Week at the Bridge ~

Old & New Side-by-Side

[For larger image, click on photo ~ lbw]

"HOW could I tell?" the innkeeper asked.
          "How could I have known 'twas He?
There were just a carpenter and his wife
   Come up from Galilee.
I would have bade them enter,
    And found them food and wine;
If only they'd explained to me,
If only there'd been a sign. . ."

~Author unknown

Here's wishing you ~
Peace for the pathway,
Wisdom for the work,
Friends for the fireside,
Love to the last.

~ Author unknown

Photo:  files lbw