Even those won't cut it for me--fortunately, reading glasses are cheap. It is just finding them that can be so hard, even when I have multiple sets around the house!

quote:

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Originally posted by Clay A.:
How the Scots Invented the Modern World

John McDonald's Travis McGee series

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I have too long delayed reading about Travis McGee. JB (the real one, from Margaritaville, piqued my interest about that character back in the 70's).

And of course, the Scots book is a treat, I bet.

Thanks for all of the replies! I will go to Half-Price Books this weekend armed with a long list of things to buy.

This post

Perhaps TDCAA could consider giving reading glasses and some of these reading selections for future speaker gifts.

John Stride: I'm no aficionado of fly fishing. I imagine the mare's nest I would make of my reel would require Job (or Alexander) to unwravel! Wouldn't you agree though, that Walton's book would repay any reader? It is a philosphical work above its practical use, no? But then there must be something contemplative about the act of tying one's own flies. I first read of The Compleat Angler in Richard Brautigan's little bookTrout Fishing in America. (along with Sombrero Fallout his very best book)

Let me also put in a word for The Wind in the Willows while I'm on a roll. The older I get, the more I understand Mole's attachment to HOME.

"Now, with a rush of old memories, how clearly it stood up before him, in the darkness! Shabby indeed, and small and poorly furnished, and yet his, the home he had made for himself, the home he had been so happy to get back to after his day's work. And the home had been happy with him, too, evidently, and was missing him, and wanted him back, and was telling him so, through his nose, sorrowfully, reproachfully, but with no bitterness or anger; only with plaintive reminder that it was there, and wanted him."

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While contemplating the Scots and their contribution to modernity, cast an eye toward Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer. I recomend to anyone Black Rednecks, White Liberals by Thomas Sowell, a fascinating and accessable set of essays on the state of American society, set and subsets.

[This message was edited by BLeonard on 09-27-06 at .]

Right now I'm slogging through Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner. I had one of those "this is a great writer who's stuff I've never read" moments at the library. It is super crunchy. I consider myself a big reader, but this is going to drive me right to Danielle Steele. I've had to go online to try and figure out what's going on a couple of times. But I'll finish it, by gum.

Don't feel too bad about Absalom, Absalom. I love Faulkner and I actually like Absalom, Absalom but, even reading it in an advanced English class, I struggled with it sometimes.

Faulkner IS a great american writer, but there is a reason he almost failed college English.