May 31st, 2006
This week’s books include:
City of God, by E. L. Doctorow.
Okay, I’ll admit it. Doctorow is one of those authors I’ve always heard about but never read. Not Billy Bathgate, not Ragtime, not The Book of Daniel. City of God is my first experience. I’ll let you know what I think.
Desperation, by Stephen King.
Another confession—yes, I’m reading Desperation because I saw the movie on ABC last week (and because I usually like King’s work).
Collected Stories, by Rudyard Kipling.
Third confession—no, it’s not what you think, I’ve read Kipling before. But I haven’t read a lot of his short stories, including “The Man Who Would Be King” (I saw a made-for-television movie based on the story and I’m thinking its not going to be the same).
A footnote: I read recently that Winston Churchill referred to Kipling as the greatest writer of the English language. I decided to see what all the fuss what about.
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May 30th, 2006
… for The Fisherman’s diehard fans.
Yes, this little website is moving up in the cyberspace. Now if you want Bloglines or some other service to feed you the updates from this site, just use the .xml link below.
http://www.thereluctantfisherman.com/blog/atom.xml
Thanks for your support.
The Fisherman
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May 30th, 2006
That sound you hear in the distant corners of your imagination is Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. You’re hearing it because, after months of work, including some rather intense and frustrating hours these past several days, the Fisherman managed to fix a floating problem that has plagued this blog since its creation. As usual, the solution appeared when I least expect it and was easier to implement than anyone imagined.
In the next few days I’ll be publishing some entries that got held back because of these technical problems.
What did I learn from the experience? There is a God. This blog is proof.
Now go to church.
The Fisherman
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May 29th, 2006
Still haven’t read Dan Brown’s best-selling novel,The Da Vinci Code? Thinking about giving into peer pressure? Well, here’s some things to consider before you pick up the book:
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May 28th, 2006
The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio
Masterpiece
Jonathan Harr
Random House (2005), 288 pgs.
I first encountered Jonathan Harr a few years ago when a friend encouraged me to read A Civil Action. At the time I worked as an attorney and I found Harr’s realistic (and often cynical) portrayal of the hazards of civil litigation highly entertaining. More to the point, I enjoyed his strong characterizations and his storytelling ability—Harr excels at the art of making non-fiction books read like novels.
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May 16th, 2006
My essay, The Light of Earindel’s Star, which my readers have commented on positively (my thanks to both of you), will be removed from the My Writing page later this week. The essay will be submitted to a contest and since the contest requires that the writing not be published, I’m removing the essay to avoid the appearance of web publication.
Since My Reason for Living is spending the week in Edison, New Jersey (which, oddly enough, is NOT the birthplace of Thomas Edison—that would be Milan, Ohio), I’m hoping to sort through some of my writing and maybe even get some new writing done. If so, I’ll post it some replacements to the site.
The Fisherman
P.S. By the way, if any of you are interested in pursuing a writing career and you’re tired of throwing your hard earned money away on the lottery, the link to the 75th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Contest is here. I encourage you to give it a shot. After all, the odds are better than the lottery. Okay, maybe only slightly better, but still better.
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May 16th, 2006
During the recent down time, I discovered an issue—a copyright issue—that might prevent me from presenting my Harper Lee page. I am in the process of working it out and, if there is no cost on my part, I hope to have the pages up soon.
Again, thanks for your patience.
The Fisherman
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May 16th, 2006
A few technical problems with Moveable Type have prevented me from posting to the site for the last ten days. Like most problems, finding the time to solve the problem correctly is as difficult as identifying the solution itself, so I haven’t been able to post recently.
Hopefully, we have the problems resolved. If you have any problems any problems at all, or if you find you cannot post a comment, please drop me a line here.
Thanks for your patience.
The Fisherman
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May 6th, 2006
Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me sad.
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
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May 5th, 2006
I found this quote on a website this morning:
Well, they’re Southern people, and if they know you are working at home they think nothing of walking right in for coffee. But they wouldn’t dream of interrupting you at golf.
Harper Lee
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