Finishing Off
I have neglected my desert island book list as I have been generating material for my blog tour (latest post is here: http://thenovelapproachreviews.com/2014/06/14/welcome-to-david-pratt-and-the-looking-after-joey-blog-tour-and-giveaway/; thank you, Lisa!) I can by now honestly answer the question, “What was your inspiration?” in five different ways. I can talk about Looking After Joey as a comedy, a drama, a satire, a tale of growing up, and more. But for now, on to the last entries in my Desert Island 10.
9.) My list has been to England, my list has been to Ireland, my list has been to more than half the United States, and, as number 8 was not a book per se but a huge self-renewing stack of travel magazines, my list has been just about everywhere else! But my list has not been home. I am a New England boy. So who is it going to be? Emerson? Melville? Jewett? A few years ago, I got an unexpected holiday bonus at work. I knew immediately what I would spend it on. For months I had had on my Amazon wish list The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson, a complete facsimile edition of the poems in two volumes. The cost had fluctuated all over the place, but at that moment stood at around $250. I swooped them up. Emily, in her own handwriting. Who could ask for anything more? Well, I sort of could. Emily’s handwriting is devilish to read. So I hope I get to bring my print edition, just for those time when, you know, I can’t read the great lady’s glorious meditations as she wrote them, exploring and dwelling in the shadowy, silent depths of the soul. I hope Emily will be the one actually to teach me how to live on my desert island.
10.) Finally, the New England boy won’t be satisfied without his Walden. And again, as with the Norton Anthology, it must be my own Walden, the one I had as a college sophomore, complete with sophomoric thoughts in the margins. That was where America was born, for better or for worse, for me, and that is where I shall dwell every few weeks on my island.
So there you have my ten. I am sure I could do another ten right now, and another. Maybe I will do this again next year, and see what I can come up with!
9.) My list has been to England, my list has been to Ireland, my list has been to more than half the United States, and, as number 8 was not a book per se but a huge self-renewing stack of travel magazines, my list has been just about everywhere else! But my list has not been home. I am a New England boy. So who is it going to be? Emerson? Melville? Jewett? A few years ago, I got an unexpected holiday bonus at work. I knew immediately what I would spend it on. For months I had had on my Amazon wish list The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson, a complete facsimile edition of the poems in two volumes. The cost had fluctuated all over the place, but at that moment stood at around $250. I swooped them up. Emily, in her own handwriting. Who could ask for anything more? Well, I sort of could. Emily’s handwriting is devilish to read. So I hope I get to bring my print edition, just for those time when, you know, I can’t read the great lady’s glorious meditations as she wrote them, exploring and dwelling in the shadowy, silent depths of the soul. I hope Emily will be the one actually to teach me how to live on my desert island.
10.) Finally, the New England boy won’t be satisfied without his Walden. And again, as with the Norton Anthology, it must be my own Walden, the one I had as a college sophomore, complete with sophomoric thoughts in the margins. That was where America was born, for better or for worse, for me, and that is where I shall dwell every few weeks on my island.
So there you have my ten. I am sure I could do another ten right now, and another. Maybe I will do this again next year, and see what I can come up with!
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