I’m so sorry that my blog reading has lagged lately. I’m desperately trying to get that book draft done for Stanford by the end of the month/year! I promise I will back in the swing of things very soon!
When I was in California last time I saw this beautiful tree with berries. I have no idea what kind of tree it is.
On the long and boring ride (through the desert) back from California, I suddenly remembered my pet peeve. Usually when people talk about pet peeves, I agree with some of what they say, but not all. But I don’t usually think in terms of having a pet peeve. Until I realized I do have one.
It’s when someone borrows a book from me and doesn’t return it!
Gah, I really hate that.
When I was a kid I had two Judy Bolton books. Do you know what those are? They are like Nancy Drew, but way better. Judy was a redhead with two cute boyfriends (sometimes at the same time). The books were written by an actual writer, Margaret Sutton, not a team of ghost writers (like Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys). A girl in my neighborhood who I had a very short-lived friendship with borrowed one of my two JB books. I had already read it twice, but loved it. She didn’t return it. I started to get very anxious about the book, and eventually my dad went over to her house to ask for it back. There were only children at home when we got there, and they refused to let my dad in the house, although he was very insistent. I never did get it back. It wasn’t replaceable as the book, I’m pretty sure, was out of print. It had been one of my mother’s books.
When I was in junior high I listened to John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley (memoir or fiction? that would be another post!) read (by whom, I can’t remember) on the radio and loved it. So when I was in high school I selected his Grapes of Wrath. Although the book was dark and sad, I loved it and loaned it to the boy who sat in front of me in history class. He refused to give me the book back. His backyard backed up to my neighborhood and I used to go by the back of his house and throw it dirty looks.
Much more recently I loaned (against my better judgment) my copy of Marni Nixon’s autobiography to my piano teacher. I LOVED that book as I have been a long time fan of Nixon’s. She was the singing voice for Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, Deborah Kerr in The King and I, and Natalie Wood in West Side Story. My teacher never returned the book. I quit piano.
OK.
I know this is dumb. Books are just THINGS. People are more important than books.
Sigh.
Anybody else this nutty about their books? Please ‘fess up.
