We had four years in that apartment. Then the insurance company sold the property to the county. For the last year we were in Oshkosh we were in an apartment half the size over a beauty parlour. I can still smell the fumes. The Washington Avenue house was torn down and looking on Google streetview it's hard to imagine that big house was ever tucked in there.
One of the challenges with this essay was deciding what to leave out! An earlier draft had 800 words on the difference between reading a book and listening to one, but it just didn't fit, so I had to take it out. Painful! But I'll use it for a different piece.
Thanks, this is an interesting perspective. Coincidentally, I've been struggling recently with how to ration my online attention at a time when there's so, so much that truly merits it right now, even if it inevitably threatens my peace of mind. I'm thinking of setting limits on my social media engagement, but that still leaves a load of journal and newsletter subscriptions to get through. And of course, one thing about retirement I really treasure (besides traveling with my husband) is the option of reading what I really want to read instead of what I have to read, i.e. fiction. Priorities...
When I was getting ready to retire people warned me that I'd be just as busy as I ever was. So true. The daily pressures are thankfully much less, but I have the same struggles of trying to fit everything I want to do into the hours available in any given day.
Congratulations on another excellent piece. Just a note: gremlins seem to have interfered with the link in the final footnote in case you wanted to change it. Much love to you and Lynn. C.
Hey Scott, nice piece. Much of what you said resonated with me. Your reading interests are different and broader than mine, but much of the rest felt familiar.
One thing stood out as a major difference, however. You mentioned writing notes in books. I, on the other hand, have never written in a book. Not once ever. Books have always felt like works of art to me, and just like I would never deface a work of art I also would never write in a book. I also never crack the spines, even on mass market paperbacks. I've got books that I've read cover to cover a couple of times that still look brand new.
And I like your comment about living in the in between. My split runs _almost_ entirely work vs. pleasure. Virtually everything in my work life is digital, from email to work-related articles to searching digitally for material to help library users. On the flip side, pretty much all of my personal/pleasure reading is in print - primarily books and print magazine subscriptions.
I think I can safely blame my mother for my preference for writing in books. She was very involved in the local Great Books discussion group and I well remember the slender boxed paperbacks on the shelf in her study. When I started reading her copies myself, there were her tiny marginal notes in pencil, so it seemed the normal thing to take my own pencil to books. All the same, I can appreciate the reverence for books as objects. They are amazing artifacts. While I was working on this essay I was very influenced by Ruth Ozeki's "The Book of Form and Emptiness" which I can wholeheartedly recommend to any lover of books.
That apartment sounds amazing, especially after being students!
We had four years in that apartment. Then the insurance company sold the property to the county. For the last year we were in Oshkosh we were in an apartment half the size over a beauty parlour. I can still smell the fumes. The Washington Avenue house was torn down and looking on Google streetview it's hard to imagine that big house was ever tucked in there.
Ah,you should include this in your story.
One of the challenges with this essay was deciding what to leave out! An earlier draft had 800 words on the difference between reading a book and listening to one, but it just didn't fit, so I had to take it out. Painful! But I'll use it for a different piece.
Thanks, this is an interesting perspective. Coincidentally, I've been struggling recently with how to ration my online attention at a time when there's so, so much that truly merits it right now, even if it inevitably threatens my peace of mind. I'm thinking of setting limits on my social media engagement, but that still leaves a load of journal and newsletter subscriptions to get through. And of course, one thing about retirement I really treasure (besides traveling with my husband) is the option of reading what I really want to read instead of what I have to read, i.e. fiction. Priorities...
When I was getting ready to retire people warned me that I'd be just as busy as I ever was. So true. The daily pressures are thankfully much less, but I have the same struggles of trying to fit everything I want to do into the hours available in any given day.
Congratulations on another excellent piece. Just a note: gremlins seem to have interfered with the link in the final footnote in case you wanted to change it. Much love to you and Lynn. C.
https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/republicans/2021/12/is-instagram-causing-poorer-mental-health-among-teen-girls
Thanks! We're just about to hit the road so I'll get that fixed tonight or tomorrow morning.
Hey Scott, nice piece. Much of what you said resonated with me. Your reading interests are different and broader than mine, but much of the rest felt familiar.
One thing stood out as a major difference, however. You mentioned writing notes in books. I, on the other hand, have never written in a book. Not once ever. Books have always felt like works of art to me, and just like I would never deface a work of art I also would never write in a book. I also never crack the spines, even on mass market paperbacks. I've got books that I've read cover to cover a couple of times that still look brand new.
And I like your comment about living in the in between. My split runs _almost_ entirely work vs. pleasure. Virtually everything in my work life is digital, from email to work-related articles to searching digitally for material to help library users. On the flip side, pretty much all of my personal/pleasure reading is in print - primarily books and print magazine subscriptions.
I think I can safely blame my mother for my preference for writing in books. She was very involved in the local Great Books discussion group and I well remember the slender boxed paperbacks on the shelf in her study. When I started reading her copies myself, there were her tiny marginal notes in pencil, so it seemed the normal thing to take my own pencil to books. All the same, I can appreciate the reverence for books as objects. They are amazing artifacts. While I was working on this essay I was very influenced by Ruth Ozeki's "The Book of Form and Emptiness" which I can wholeheartedly recommend to any lover of books.