Ivanhoe: A Romance

I finished reading Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott a few weeks ago. Actually I listened to it while I was exercising in the mornings. I downloaded the story from LibriVox. The first half of the story was recorded by Kristin LeMoine who did a marvelous job. For some reason Kristin could not finish reading the book but others picked up and also read well. But enough of that. On to the story.

Ivanhoe was written a long time ago, 1819 to be exact. And the story narration sound old. I rather enjoy it, but it is different than most books written today. The narrator often speaks directly to the reader giving necessary information or giving explanation for characters actions. It is kind of fun. It feels like you are listening to a story teller rather than reading a story.

Many of our favorite characters are weaved through the story, King Richard, Robin of Locksley, Prince John, and others. I received a new insight into these characters which I had never seen previously in other books or movies containing these men. It was also nice to gain insight into the history and culture of the earliest days of England. I suppose you could consider Ivanhoe one of the earliest historical novels. One of the aspects I liked in the book was to see the way the characters from different cultures treated each other. The generalization about each culture was perhaps exaggerated but it still gives a view into some of the prejudices the people held, either in Sir Walter Scotts day or in early England.

Overall I considered Ivanhoe quite exciting and fun to read. I would suggest it to anyone.

There is one dialog that I wanted to point out from chapter 29. The scene is one where Rebecca, the Jewess and healer, is looking out the turret window describing the war going on below to Ivanhoe who is anxiously lying wounded in bed.

"Alas," said Rebecca, leaving her station at the window, and approaching the couch of the wounded knight, "this impatient yearning after action—this struggling with and repining at your present weakness, will not fail to injure your returning health—How couldst thou hope to inflict wounds on others, ere that be healed which thou thyself hast received?"

"Rebecca," he replied, "thou knowest not how impossible it is for one trained to actions of chivalry to remain passive as a priest, or a woman, when they are acting deeds of honour around him. The love of battle is the food upon which we live—the dust of the 'melee' is the breath of our nostrils! We live not—we wish not to live—longer than while we are victorious and renowned—Such, maiden, are the laws of chivalry to which we are sworn, and to which we offer all that we hold dear."

"Alas!" said the fair Jewess, "and what is it, valiant knight, save an offering of sacrifice to a demon of vain glory, and a passing through the fire to Moloch?—What remains to you as the prize of all the blood you have spilled—of all the travail and pain you have endured—of all the tears which your deeds have caused, when death hath broken the strong man's spear, and overtaken the speed of his war-horse?"

"What remains?" cried Ivanhoe; "Glory, maiden, glory! which gilds our sepulchre and embalms our name."

"Glory?" continued Rebecca; "alas, is the rusted mail which hangs as a hatchment over the champion's dim and mouldering tomb—is the defaced sculpture of the inscription which the ignorant monk can hardly read to the enquiring pilgrim—are these sufficient rewards for the sacrifice of every kindly affection, for a life spent miserably that ye may make others miserable? Or is there such virtue in the rude rhymes of a wandering bard, that domestic love, kindly affection, peace and happiness, are so wildly bartered, to become the hero of those ballads which vagabond minstrels sing to drunken churls over their evening ale?"

"By the soul of Hereward!" replied the knight impatiently, "thou speakest, maiden, of thou knowest not what. Thou wouldst quench the pure light of chivalry, which alone distinguishes the noble from the base, the gentle knight from the churl and the savage; which rates our life far, far beneath the pitch of our honour; raises us victorious over pain, toil, and suffering, and teaches us to fear no evil but disgrace. Thou art no Christian, Rebecca; and to thee are unknown those high feelings which swell the bosom of a noble maiden when her lover hath done some deed of emprize which sanctions his flame. Chivalry!—why, maiden, she is the nurse of pure and high affection—the stay of the oppressed, the redresser of grievances, the curb of the power of the tyrant—Nobility were but an empty name without her, and liberty finds the best protection in her lance and her sword."

It seams as though war has brought conflict to the soul as well as to nations as long as it has existed.

The Jungle

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a very powerful, very disturbing book that everyone should read. It should not be read until you are a little older so that the subject matter can be understood. If you have never tried to find a job, if you have never tried to support a family, if you have never had to uphold your morality in the face of possible sever consequences then you may not be ready to read this book. Then again, you may want to read it knowing that you may need to do these things in the future.

The Jungle is an intense discussion about the horrors that humanity inflicts upon itself in the name of greed. It points out the destructive behavior of capitalism. It brings to light the problem of the inhumane treatment of a poor, ignorant workforce. It points out the deceitful nature of politics when connected to monetary gain. It speaks of the apathetic, arrogant, and disillusioned rich in their efforts to subdue the poor more fully and elevate their position to greater heights. If you think this sounds like the book may be propaganda for socialism, you're right. Interestingly, being written in 1906 it was yet to be seen if socialism would solve the ills of capitalism. Having the history we have today allows us to note that socialism, at least that backed by communism, exhibited many of the same problems attributed strictly to capitalism in this book.

A push for socialism was clearly not the only purpose in the writing of The Jungle. The topic of socialism is really only discussed in the last three chapters of the book. Most of the book describes the hopeless plight of the working class, the disgusting circumstances that they lived in and their fight for survival. The descriptive nature of the writing deliberately turns your stomach and tears at your heart. This major purpose, to create an awareness and sympathy for the poor workers of America, was delivered very successfully.

Producing an awareness of the struggle that the poor constantly have is critical in our world today. While there is still a great struggle between labor groups and businesses, America has come a long way in creating more reasonable working conditions. But America is not the only country in the world. Much of the world is rapidly developing and falling into the exact same destructive behaviors described by Upton Sinclair in 1906. A quick look at the Human Rights Watch website shows that there is still a lot of work to be done.

If you have not read The Jungle, you should. I have added a link to purchase the book on Amazon above, or if you would like to listen to it, Librivox has a great recording available.

Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians

A friend at work told me a bit about Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson and he happened to have a copy available to read as we were talking. So, I borrowed it and read it over a weekend. I enjoyed the book immensely. Alcatraz was creative, witty, and fun. The book is written in a first person point of view which I felt was refreshing. It gave new expression to the reading. The book being written in the present day and in the first person, the author was both the character and the author. This allowed for a feeling of really being told a story from an adventurer.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the humor. It was quick witted and fast paced. There were jabs at current literature and entertainment (nothing was called out by name, but you know what he is talking about). There were jabs at the "all knowing" educational institutions and their professors. There was a bit of witty sarcasm about everyday life and events that everyone is dealing with or has dealt with. This allowed the story to bring a bit of humor into some of the drab parts of life.

Now, while I enjoyed the story and had a hard time putting it down, I will not be reading any of the sequels. This book would have been best as a stand alone story. *On Soapbox* Why does every fantasy story have to be a series! *Off Soapbox* The style of writing and the humor became monotonous at the very end of the story. Wit repeated becomes much less witty. The plot was cute but juvenile, which did not really make me want to read more. I read because the humor made me smile (even laugh out loud at times), not because the plot was engaging.

I definitely suggest this book to anyone who would like a quick, fun story to read.

Foundation Series

Right before Candace went to the hospital to deliver Genevieve she was trying to find a good book to read. A good friend suggested to Candace that she read the Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov. A few day later I picked it up, as it was sitting near by, and started reading it. Each Chapter was only a few pages long. This is a very positive quality in a book for me. I usually only have 5-10 minutes at a time to read, so a short chapter lends itself to my reading habits. As the series went on the chapters became longer and longer which meant that as I moved through the series it started to take longer and longer to finish each book. I read only the original three books in the series. There are three more that were written at a later time, but I think it is time for me to move on to something else.

I found the series to be quite intriguing. Much of the plot was based on philosophical misdirection. This meant that each new chapter brought new information as well as new unknowns. This kept the plot alive in my mind and kept me thinking about what might happen next. I found this to be both good and bad. It was good because it made the story interesting. It was bad because I was focused on the plot and not of the messages and philosophy presented by the author.

Generally, when I read I am not worried about the story's plot. I enjoy pondering the information presented by the author much more. Reading this series, where both were present, created a real conflict as I read. In the end the plot was too much of a distraction and so I just quickly finished the book to feed my desire to know what was going to happen next. Thus I probably missed a lot of interesting information which was weaved into the story.

Because of the way the first book was constructed I had more time to think about what was being discussed in the book. I really enjoyed thinking about Asimov's ideas about the interaction between education, technology, religion, science, societal advancement and stagnation. It was interesting to think about where our current society stands in comparison to what he was describing.

I highly suggest the foundation series on many levels. The science fiction was great. The depth of the story was wonderful. The writing was clean and fun to read.

Gawayne and the Green Knight

I finished another good story recently. This story I listened to instead of read. During my morning workouts I have started listening to stories because, as far as I can tell, either cable providers are completely disconnected to their audience or I am not their audience. Sixty channels of trash was too much for me so now I do my best not to look at the filth on the screen at the gym and focus on a good story instead. I find the stories I listen to on the Librivox website.

Gawayne and the Green Knight is the story Sir Gawayne, a knight of King Aurthur's court. It is a short story written as an old english rhyme in the late 14th-century. I read the modern adaptation by Charlton Miner Lewis. It was a fun story with all the joys of Arthurian legend. There were knights, damsels, and of course a quest. The story was fun and enjoyable to read.

At one point where Sir Gawayne's virtue is tested to the utmost he states the following:

Love? What is love? Not the wild feverish thrill,
When heart to heart the thronging pulses fill,
And lips that close in parching kisses find
No speech but those;--the best remains behind.
The tranquil spirit--the divine assurance
That this life's seemings have a high endurance--
Thoughts that allay this restless striving, calm
The passionate heart, and fill old wounds with balm;--
These are the choirs invisible that move
In white processionals up the aisles of love.

He strikes a point that has been largely forgotten in the world today. Love is deeper than infatuation. Love is more enduring than passion. In our world of quick fixes and fast satisfaction love is being lost. Marriages end with the first disagreement. Families are broken by the unfocused lust for pleasure. There needs to be a return to love being that of healing wounds, calming fears, enduring both pain and pleasure. That is love.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Barnes & Noble recently had a sale on their own series of classic literature books so I bought a few. I started reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and had a very hard time putting it down. I was very impressed at Mr. Stevenson's command of language. His word choice and composition made the book very enjoyable. It was quick to read but carried with it very full imagery.

The overall metaphor and discussion about the dual personality of man was rich. In my view he captured that struggle that everyone has as we live life. Without suggesting how we should act he was able to very powerfully describe how and why we act the way we do. I think this is a very effective way to teach, explain the way things are and what consequences there may be and let people choose for themselves.

As Dr. Jekyll wrote explaining what was happening to him, he used the word liberty a few times in his description of Mr. Hyde's behavior. I found this to be a very accurate description of peoples thinking, though, personally, I think it is a short sited mistake in their thinking. For example, Dr. Jekyll describes his feelings at the beginning of his experiment by saying, "I was the first that could plod in the public eye with a load of genial respectability, and in a moment, like a schoolboy, strip off these lendings and spring headlong into the sea of liberty." He felt that by shedding the respectable side of his person he was now more free to act in any way he wanted to. Later in his experiment he discovers that he likes the respectable side of his person better, but still states that his other side has more liberty. "Yes, I preferred the elderly and discontented doctor, surrounded by friends and cherishing honest hopes; and bade a resolute farewell to the liberty, the comparative youth, the light step, leaping impulses and secret pleasures, that I had enjoyed in the disguise of Hyde."

I think the overall story and life itself points to the fact that this definition of liberty is flawed. In the person of Dr. Jekyll he had the power to be either Jekyll or Hyde. But in the person of Mr. Hyde he lost all his freedom. He describes himself as by saying that "his terror of the gallows drove him continually to commit temporary suicide, and return to his subordinate station of a part instead of a person; but he loathed the necessity." Mr. Hyde began to appear even when Dr. Jekyll did not want him to and soon he could not be controlled at all. In the end he committed suicide showing that he had no liberty at all because he chose to live as Mr. Hyde.

Real life is the same in that as we chose good we gain more liberty not less. And as we choose poorly we lose our liberty; we become trapped and unhappy. We often look at behaviors displayed in the world and in the media thinking that we are trapped because we cannot act in that way. This is a misconception. We can act that way, but as Dr. Jekyll found out, it only looks like it would be liberating. In reality it may be exciting or pleasurable for a short time, but it will not bring lasting happiness, only misery.

Christmas Story

I've been reading the LDS Publisher blog for a while now. The author has some good general information about publishing, especially for self publishers or those trying to get published for the first time. About a month ago, a post appeared inviting everyone to submit Christmas stories for a little contest. I didn't think much of it, but on my walk home from work a story started forming in my head.

That night, I tried the story out on Candace. I just told her I wanted to tell her a story and then proceeded to try and tell my ideas as a coherant story. I think I was doing pretty good until I got to the end which I hadn't decided on yet. We talked about it for just a bit and then went to bed.

The next morning I started writing. I wrote the story from the top to the bottom. I read the story a few times correcting different inconsistencies and other little things. I gave the story to a friend who enjoys creative writting and had him read the story and give suggestions. I agreed with most of what he said, but never had the time to implement the changes before the submission date of the contest.

None of the above is real important, but it gives a little insight into the development of the story. I would like to have the story illustrated and published so that I could give it to my children one day. You can read my submission on the contest page or below.

Cricket's Gift

There would be no snow for Christmas this year. The winter was far too warm to allow it. Cricket sat alone outside his doorstep. He watched many animals scurrying back and forth on the roadside in front of his home.

Field Mouse must have been preparing a great feast. He was running in every direction scavenging any nuts and berries he could find that had been left by the late coming winter.

Snow Owl sat quietly in a bare tree over head. He was just waking as the sun set behind him. Cricket watched as Snow Owl left his perched position and flew high into the evening sky, his wings stretched out wide as he glided in front of the rising moon.

It was Christmas Eve and all the animals were rushing to finish their preparations for their Christmas celebrations. Cricket had no one to spend Christmas with this year. His preparations were very meager and so he sat and watched the bustle of others.

As he sat, Cricket began to play his favorite violin. He loved to play even though he never had an audience. On this night he played a beautiful medley of Christmas hymns. As he played he thought of the Christ Child. His feelings and his melody grew deep and strong. He played with all his feeling and the hymns floated through the still night.

Cricket put down his violin long after the last rays of sunlight had disappeared. The animals were still scurrying from place to place. No one seemed to notice his melody in the air. The night was now dark and cold. Cricket entered his home, stored away his violin and prepared for bed.

Before retiring, Cricket knelt by his bedside and prayed to the Lord. Cricket thanked the Lord for His goodness in sending the Christ Child. Cricket cried. In part for joy and in part for loneliness, for Cricket had no one to share his joy with this Christmas. In time, Cricket climbed into bed and fell asleep.

Cricket was still drowsy but he awoke to a voice calling his name. "Cricket," the voice called again. Cricket lifted his head and looked around his room. A man with a long white beard stood at the foot of his bed smiling at him.

"I am the Spirit of Christmas," he said. "I have come to deliver a gift to you. This is no ordinary gift. It has not been crafted by the hands of men, but instead is created in their hearts." He then beckoned to Cricket saying, "Come with me."

Cricket pulled on his night-coat as he crawled out of bed. Together they stepped out of his house and into the street. Walking with the Spirit, Cricket did not feel the cold chill in the air. They stopped at the home of Field Mouse and entered the house, but no one could see or hear them.

Field Mouse was singing merrily as he added finishing touches to many of the Christmas decorations around his home. Eventually, he was satisfied with all his preparations and sat down in a chair next to his lovely wife. His wife looked up at him as he quietly finished the melody of a beautiful Christmas hymn. She spoke softly, "I have never seen you so happy before and never singing so joyfully." Field Mouse looked thoughtful for a moment and then replied, "As I was out gathering the last preparations for Christmas, I heard the most beautiful music. A single violin echoed the voice of heaven as it filled the world with the hymns of Christmas. I guess I have been singing ever since."

The Spirit of Christmas beckoned and led Cricket from the home of Field Mouse. As they walked together Cricket said, "I didn't think anyone heard me play tonight." The Spirit smiled and said, "We never know what the hearts of others see and hear."

They continued on their journey to the home of Rabbit and his family. While at Rabbit's house Cricket learned that Rabbit had opened a window upon hearing the echo of a violin. He gathered his wife and children around him and told them the story of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. He told them how angels had filled the sky and sang to shepherds who tended their sheep in nearby fields. That night even the youngest children sat quietly and listened to the sounds of the nativity. Their hearts were full knowing that they were allowed to hear the heavens rejoice on this Christmas Eve.

The Spirit of Christmas led Cricket from home to home that night. Each residence held similar convictions. They all felt that they had been blessed to hear a heavenly melody ringing in the Christmas celebration.

Cricket returned home and cried again as the Spirit of Christmas left him. He knelt by his bedside and thanked the Lord for the vision he had been shown. He was no longer lonely, for he had hosts of people to serve and bless. Cricket still plays his violin each year to usher in the Christmas celebration. If you listen very closely this Christmas Eve you to may hear his heavenly melody playing in your heart.

The Prince

This weekend on our family vacation to Colorado I had some time and finished reading The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli. I appreciated Machiavelli's logical and straight forward approach to the subject of becoming and remaining a prince. His arguments were clear and concise which made the book very enjoyable to read.

As I read I could not help but thinking of Utopia, by Sir Thomas More. Machiavelli would argue that the Utopian society would not last long because a mercenary army would not suffice to keep the country safe for very long. This led me to wonder how their society would work if the people had to defend themselves. Their society would require a standing army. I think this would still work with the other principles of their society. I would expect they would require service in the military. They would focus on teaching their soldiers skills of physical strength and skill. Many of these skills could be utilized in their future professions. No one would remain in the military forever, but all would be available if needed. The older solders would teach the younger ones until their time to leave the military was at hand. In this way, their military supports society, but is not a profession in itself. This may not be the most efficient military, but it might suffice for their needs.

I disagreed with at least one theme presented in the book. Machiavelli writes, "For a man who wants to make a profession of good in all regards must come to ruin among so many who are not good. Hence it is necessary to a prince, if he wants to maintain himself, to earn to be able not to be good, and to use this and not use it according to necessity." I can certainly see his point. If everyone around you is not good and you are to rule over them, you also must perform acts that are not good to gain control of them. You must, of course, do some of both so that you gain control while at the same time you gain their respect and servitude. While this line of reasoning is sound, I disagree in two regards. First, you should never disregard your principles because of the actions of others or because of circumstance. Second, I don't believe that the evil of the people is an immutable fact. Machiavelli did not have record of King Benjamin. The way King Benjamin dealt with the problem of wickedness was to convert all of his subjects to the gospel of Christ. This allowed him to rule without fear of the people.

Overall, I enjoyed the book a great deal. I learned a bit about the science of politics, which is an important thing at this election time. It allowed me to consider how our nation, as well as other contemporary nations, handle power and security.

Elantris

I have had a little downtime for the last few days and thought I would read a good book while I couldn't do anything else.  Candace has suggested that Elantris is the best fantasy book that she has read, so I picked it up and read it over the last two days.

Elantris is Brandon Sanderson's debut novel.  For an initial novel I think he did very well.  The story was intriguing and well thought out.  I appreciated it's originality.  I am not a big fantasy reader, but the world that he created seemed realistic and original.  

The novel is written, not from the first-person, but from a limited third-person who focused on three main characters.  This was a different style that took me a while to get used to.  Each chapter switched scenes and main characters.  This abrupt change bothered me until the climax of the book neared.

The characters were developed very slowly.  New perspective into the world and the characters was added until the very last page of the book.  There is no way to guess the end because you don't know enough to guess it until you're there.  That was just fine though.  Nothing was added that was out of line with a very possible reality which made it feel like the characters were real, and reacting to real situations. 

The author created an extreme amount of names that I could not even begin to pronounce.  I just skipped over them connecting that certain set of letters with the character or place described.  This is OK I suppose, it is a whole new world and I was reading to myself, but it was a bit distracting.

There were quite a few one-liners.  Sentences that put forward philosophical or otherwise interesting statements intending to suggest a real world bit of truth.  They seemed a little bit out of place at times but I appreciated them none the less.  If a story doesn't teach you something it's not really worth reading.  Beyond the one-liners there was a good fight between truth, lies and when we should use each.  There was also good discussion on the role of religion in one's life.

Overall, Elantris was an excellent book.  I would definitely recommend reading it if you enjoy fantasy novels. Brandon Sanderson has other novels that he has written now which have also been highly recommended to me.  You can learn more about them on his website.  Brandon is also doing some interesting things with immediate eBook publishing.

The Brothers Karamazov

I finally finished it.  It has taken almost three years, but I finished it.  The book: The Brothers Karamozov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky.  It took so long to read mainly because I have not had much time to read.  The other reason it took so long is because the book is not meant to be read fast.  There is very little plot.  The plot is there mainly to create situations to more fully develop the characters. This is not a novel like most you find today.  The plot does not keep you reading, the ideas do. 

The Brothers Karamozov is a novel exploring humanity, truth and the meaning of life.  Perhaps what I liked best, and found very refreshing, was the authors ability to be objective.  He put forward both sides of almost every point of view.  I can't say the author was actually objective though, he was biased towards both sides.  As Ivan forcefully tried to deny God, it seemed as though the author agreed.  As Father Zossima and Alyosha explained their faith in God, you could feel the author's faith as well.  This is perhaps the best written piece of literature I have ever read from that regard.

The abstract on the back cover of my copy of the book put forward an interesting statement that I wanted to discuss briefly.  "Rebellion and The Grand Inquisitor present what many have considered the strongest arguments ever formulated against the existence of God."  The two chapters mentioned are very interesting.  The first questions how God can exist with all of the atrocities which are committed against the innocent.  The second is a wonderful story where Christ appears to the Grand Inquisitor.  The Grand Inquisitor puts Him to death because He is not helping to bring peace to the world.  Christ taught freedom of faith.  The Grand Inquisitor was forcing peace through forceful unification of faith.  These ideas are brought out as Ivan, the scientific brother, talks with Alyosha, the believing brother.  It is Ivan's voice through most of the two chapters but in the end you are left with a lot to think about, not the author's agenda.

I found the quote on the back of the book interesting because when I was done reading both chapters I was left thinking that Ivan had some serious questions to which he did not have any answers, but if he understood God and his plan for his children better they would no longer be questions.  I did not find the chapters to be arguments against the existence of God, rather I found them to be arguments revealing the ignorance of man.

The entire book was wonderful.  Every chapter held a series of gems to ponder on. If you have a lot of time I would highly recommend The Brothers Karamazov.   You will need to set aside time to read as well as ponder over the nature of God, the devil, and especially, man.

Online Audio Books

I changed jobs recently. I am now working at Omniture, Inc. This has been a great move except for one thing…the commute. I know, I know, forty minutes to an hour is not that long of a commute by many peoples standards, but it takes me away from my family for an extra couple of hours a day. This is unacceptable to me so we are planning on moving to fix the problem. In the mean time, I have found something that at least makes the commute much more enjoyable: Audio books online.

There are quite a few different online audio book websites. I am just going to discuss my favorite. LibriVox provides over 1000 free audio books from the public domain. Volunteers record themselves reading books and make them available on the LibriVox website. All recordings are placed in the public domain.

There are several options for reading or listening to your chosen story. The full text is made available from the Gutenberg website. There are links available to Wikipedia telling you more about the author and the book you are looking at. The recordings are archived at the Internet archive website. The archive website makes the recordings available as mp3 files at either 64kbps or 128kbps as well as in the ogg vorbis format. You can also download the mp3 files as a zip file or listen to it as a streaming broadcast. LibriVox makes links available to quickly subscribe to the story as an iTunes Podcast. You can also join an email subscription to have the story sent to you one chapter a day. In other words, LibriVox has done all they can to please your listening preference.

I have listened to quite a few different stories now and have found most of the recordings to be of a good quality. They are certainly better than listening to repeatitive news casts or obnoxious DJ’s. In fact, I enjoy the books a lot. It has made my commute very enjoyable.

I've started a book

So I have been working at FamilyLearn for over a year now. I am finally getting around to writing my own book. I got the idea when my son start talking about “three fingered Jack.” I had made up a ghost story on our vacation to the Oregon coast. The kids were restless and I saw a sign that read “three fingered Jack.” I don’t know what the sign was there for, but it gave me an idea for a story. So I started to make up a story about a man named “three fingered Jack”. It was silly and I didn’t think the children even listened…but now months later I hear my son talking about it. This experience made me think that I should record these stories. Hence the book.

The experience writing the story (from a technical point of view) has been very good. The system is working much better than it ever has before. It is actually fun to write there. I didn’t think I would like writing in a web browser, but it was really not too bad. I want to write a few more books and put together some gifts for people as well. But, one at a time is probably best.

My mother is writting a personal history about her father. It has been a lot of fun helping her edit the book and organize ideas and so forth. I can’t wait to see the finished book.

paul

Flower in the crannied wall

Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies;—
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower—but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson