Sunday Salon

So we went away for my birthday weekend to enjoy seclusion and a fireplace in the woods, and it was lovely. Two delicious suppers, outlet shopping, books, and TV-on-DVD marathoning. But then today we awoke to an unexpectedly bad snowstorm and beat it out of there pretty quick, barely making it to the highway in my faithful but tiny car. Once we were out of the countryside the snow let up mostly, but damn, Indiana has got to be the windiest place in the universe. I’ll never understand why Dorothy Gale wasn’t from there—but then I’ve never been to Kansas.

Birthday books? Oh yes, of course. Here they are.

Fun fun.

This afternoon I’m finishing up Sailing Alone around the World, and I don’t like to say anything before it’s completely done, but this is the best of the sea narratives I’ve read. Joshua Slocum should be much better known. And his book should be better read. It’s completely charming. And his trip is unbelievable. Lots more about that this week.

Also, via the suggested reading in that book, I discovered this one: The Sea Voyage Narrative by Robert Foulke. This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for and somehow didn’t find at the start of my little enterprise. Well, I’ve found plenty of other stuff to add to the list for later anyhow, and this is going right to the top. This week will be, as far as I can imagine, the last for my sea writing for a while, but I can say with confidence it’s a theme I’ll be going back to quite a bit in future.