Read With Me! Outtakes from Eight Years of Reading and Recording

At the beginning of 2010 I started to record the books I read in a large multicolored striped journal I bought at Barnes and Noble. I had grumbled once to my librarian friend that I often forgot the names of books I'd read, and there were even times I'd find myself halfway through reading a book only to realize I'd read it before and forgotten. (I hate to waste my reading time rereading something I didn't intend to reread!) She suggested I keep a reading journal, and I felt like a great big dummy for not thinking of doing so earlier.

Thus, for the past seven and a half years I've been recording the titles and authors of the books I read. I also give each a rating out of five stars, and I write down a few thoughts about each book. I just recorded book number 313, and I have about six more books which I'm currently reading that I'll add to my record soon.

Since this is the winter that just won't die, my motorcycle riding has been non-existent so far, and my roaming hasn't yet begun either -- however, I do have trips to Minnesota, South Dakota and California planned for my summer break, so I'll write about those at a later time -- but I have been able to read a lot while I've been cooped up inside. So even though I hate the snow and the cold weather, it does allow me ample reading time, so I'm grateful for that.

Allow me to share a few of my favorites along with comments I made in my reading journal from those 313 books.

1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
    "Loved it! Makes me want to visit the island of Guernsey. The characters were people I wish I could get to know in real life." ***** 

2.  Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
     "Olive is both intolerable and completely understandable -- a good person with a grouchy exterior. An aging woman who isn't ready to age (like someone else I know)." ****

3.  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
     "I am so sad that the author died. I would love to read more of his stuff. This trilogy was fantastic but at times confusing because of the sheer number of characters." ****

4.  La Bella Lingua by Dianne Hales
     "I bought this book while in Italy. It's about the Italian language and has a lot of wonderful information about Italy's history and culture. Reading it while I was in Italy, I learned that Machiavelli is buried in Santa Croce in Florence, so I went there while I was in Florence. I would have missed that if not for this book."  ****

5.  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
     "There aren't enough stars for how good this book is! One of the best books I've ever read! This was the second time I've read it, and I plan to reread it a few more times. I loved that Death is the narrator, and I love his narrative voice." *********************, etc.

6.  The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
      "I probably wouldn't have picked this up if I hadn't first seen part of the movie because I'd heard really bad things about the movie version, but after seeing it myself I understood that the story, despite the sex, was a great story because it is all about how illiteracy condemns us while literacy and education set us free. The ending was disappointing, however."  ***

7.  The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
    "This novel definitely is right up my alley of interests. Imagine a Cemetery of Forgotten Books! I'd be at that place every day! Set in Barcelona, and since I've been there, I could picture it and feel it. This novel really spoke to my deep-seated love of literature and the need to preserve books. I was sad it had to end."

8.  The Hours  by Michael Cunningham
     "The author has artfully stolen the important details from Virginia Woolf's novel, Mrs. Dalloway, as well as from her own life and made her a character in his novel. The three stories of the three days in the three women's lives are so intricately and expertly interwoven. I couldn't put this down." *****

9.  Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
     "Soooooo good. I picked it up last night and finished it this afternoon. What a great character Jacob is."  *****

10.  The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
     "A saga indeed! Very long. Very good. I read it, though, in fits and starts -- often very engrossed in it and other times not. How life's cycle goes on and we all end up in the tomb -- felt both sorry and also unsympathetic to Soames (he only wanted to be loved yet he was unlovable)." ****

11.  Silas Marner by George Eliot
      "Eliot has such a command of the language. Good fortune comes to those who wait and are most deserving of it. Really good, really sweet and really deep." ****

12.  Roots by Alex Haley
     "Really interesting how Haley was able to trace his lineage due to the fact that those few words Kunta taught his daughter were passed down through the ages. Words really do have power." *****

13.  Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier
    "Not quite how I expected it to be but very philosophical and full of thoughts that are so well expressed including this little gem -- 'There were the people who read and there were the others. Whether you were a reader or a non-reader -- it was quickly noted. There was no greater distinction between people.' " ***

14.  The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe
        "Mary Anne read the endings of books first just as I do! I feel so vindicated. Contains a great index of all the books they read or mentioned. I like this quote: 'We all have a lot more to read than we can read and a lot more to do than we can do.' " ****

15.  Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
     "Reincarnation. Cloning. Technology run amok and society's collapse and new beginnings? Historical fiction. Science fiction. All sorts of stories told in varying ways -- through a journal, through letters, through an interview, through first person narratives. A very strange read. A very good read. A very long read." ****

16.  The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
    "A true thinker's read. Loved it. I want to reread it and underline and highlight all the profound thoughts and comments." (note: I have since done that very thing) *****

17.  People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
     "Amazing! So good! The people who make and use and touch a book die off, but the book remains and, through it, so does the story of their lives." *****

18.  Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts
    "Such a good description of a library and a self-educated smart young woman who rises above the horrible life she could have had and who has a great impact on others. Always have loved the movie version, too." *****

19.  All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
      "The stories of one German boy and one blind French girl during World War II are told in alternating chapters until their lives meet up and he saves her. Soooooo good. Won the Pulitzer. I can see why." *****

20.   The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
     "Chaos to order -- the theme interweaving stories from the Civil War, Hurricane Katrina, Columbine shootings and others into one cohesive, introspective novel. What a great author he is. A very long book but well worth the time." *****

Ride with me to clear your mind!

There's nothing like a long motorcycle ride to clear your mind of burdens. As the road opens before you, your mind also opens and lets out the bad energy to allow the good energy to flow in with the wind rushing past you.

When you're feeling particularly despondent and stressed as I was after dropping my youngest off for her first year of college, no ordinary motorcycle ride will do. No, it must be a long one on a beautiful day. Fortunately for me, Saturday was just that.

We headed south to visit my son. To get to him, we take highway 281 which runs along the edge of the Nebraska Sandhills. The highway is in good shape, and it doesn't get much traffic since it runs through sparsely populated towns that are set far apart.

As we rode, I kept thinking about the expanse of the land that stretched off all around me, comparing that to my trip to Manhattan earlier this summer. Manhattan is wonderful, but it covers an area roughly 13 miles long and 2 and a half miles wide, which makes it not quite 23 square miles. The Nebraska Sandhills are 19,300 square miles!! 

On my Saturday ride, I traversed 13 mile stretch after 13 mile stretch without seeing a single person (other than my boyfriend on his bike behind mine), a single house, a single vehicle, or even a single cow. And I was only on the very edge of the hills -- the rest reach across the state for over 250 more miles.

That open and uncluttered space was what I needed to release the sadness I'd been feeling. Out with the bad, in with the good -- as some old saying goes.

We rode along with only the roar of our bikes as company, the road leading us down its seemingly endless path. The hills rolled beside us, and they were resplendent with wild yellow sunflowers in bloom everywhere.

As I crested one low hill, my eyes momentarily deceived me, and I thought I was approaching the ocean, but then I realized it was a field of alfalfa all abloom with its bluish-purplish flowers. As the plants swayed in the breeze, it certainly created the illusion of waves lapping gently at the shore.

I kept thinking, too, as I really looked out over the land, that if it weren't for the highway cutting through the hills and the line of utility poles occasionally running alongside it, I could very well be seeing this land the way the Native Americans once saw it -- virtually untouched.

I'm not usually a big fan of the Nebraska Sandhills simply because they are such a lonely place; however, just as a rainy day or a Christmas snowfall can be comforting, so can these hills to a mom who has just watched her last child leave home. The hills and their gentle simplicity along with their everlasting quality gave me peace of mind that all would be fine.

So, I rode for hours that day, stopping to see my son and have lunch with him. He's starting his first year as a P.E. teacher and head coach. My daughter is starting her first year as a college student. I'm starting my first year without them. It's hard, but I'll keep rolling -- on and on, like those Sandhills.

Roam With Me -- NYC from the Today Show to St. Patrick's Cathedral to the Brooklyn Bridge and the Strand Bookstore -- June 12-13, 2017

Now for the last two full days we spent in New York City. The final day was the 14th, and only the early part was spent in Manhattan at my favorite clothing store, New York and Company, where I scored 4 items for the price of 1! After that, we were at LaGuardia awaiting our flight home (which got cancelled, so they sent us to Des Moines instead of Omaha, and my dad had to drive five hours to come get us!), and that time was not enjoyable in the least, so that's all I'm saying about that last day.

As to the two leading up to it, they were great ones full of more adventures and sightseeing.

On the 12th, Kim and I got up early and let my kids sleep in while he and I headed over a few blocks to Rockefeller Center where they film the Today Show. Now, I seldom watch it, but he's been a longtime fan of the show, so we decided to go see if we could actually become part of the crowd of waving people you always see outside of the show on TV. Turns out it was a really simple thing to do.

We were walking along West 50th Street, keeping our eyes peeled for any sign of the show, and about the time I was saying something like, "It should be around here somewhere," we suddenly came upon an opening with a cop standing by a movable barricade, and when I said something like, "Well, I'll be, here it is," she asked, "You guys coming in?" I told her we wanted to, and she pointed us to the next building and told us to go through it, come out the other side and enter from the other street side, so we did.

We had to pass through a quick security check, but it was very quick, and then we were inside the blocked off area. Since we had arrived after 7:00 a.m., we didn't get into the main group of people -- we probably could have, but I didn't feel the need to push our way in there -- but we had a front seat sort of view of a grilling area they were going to be using later in the show. We also were in the shade of the building there which was really nice because it was already a hot morning. 

Turns out the grilling segment was in honor of Father's Day, which was coming up, and there were about 12 fathers from the area who had been chosen to come grill with a famous chef  -- I had to look it up on the Today Show archives to find out, but it was Tim Love for anyone of you who know who that is. So, we got to stand there and watch the crew get a bunch of grilling stations ready, and we also were able to see Al, Savannah and Hoda and some other people who are on the Today Show come outside for part of the show. Again, I don't watch the show, so I'm not totally up on who all those people are, but their guest was Seth Meyers.

I've watched a few of the videos in the Today's archive of that day, and I saw myself a couple of times. Since there was a delay of an hour to when it was airing back home, I was able to text my mom and let her know where to look for us and when. She said she saw us quite a few times, including once when the cameraman came by quickly for all of us to wave. It was a fun experience overall, but we definitely got to see how the crew takes forever to set up a segment that then runs about five minutes -- and those men never did get their steaks grilled, but they all did get a brand new grill out of the experience!

After we left the show, we walked over to St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was another place high on Kim's list of sites he wanted to see. He's Catholic; I'm not religious, but I do enjoy visiting beautiful cathedrals around the world, and that is definitely a pretty church.

He took a moment to light some candles for special people, and he paused to kneel at the main altar. I quietly looked around and respectfully took a few photos -- no flash -- of some of the most beautiful aspects of the church. It is truly a lovely place. 

Then we went to my kind of place -- a Harley-Davidson dealer. Woohoo. I bought a black t-shirt that depicts the NYC skyline, and I got another poker chip for my slowly growing collection.

However, while we were there I had perhaps one of the funniest bathroom experiences of my life. Most stores won't let you use the restrooms or claim they don't have one at all (yeah, right), but by this time I needed a restroom, so I asked the clerk if I could please use their restroom before I started looking. He looked me up and down, saw I was already wearing a H-D t-shirt and then said in what I thought was a deep Russian accent, "For you, make exception." He then pointed to a narrow door and told me where the light switch was located. I opened the door to find a long and very narrow room with a toilet whose bowl faced sideways and almost touched the opposite wall. I literally had to climb over it to get to the sink at the back of the long room. It was weird. I later asked the clerk where he and the other clerk were from when I overheard them speaking to each other in a language that sounded Russian to me. Turns out he was from Azerbaijan, and the other guy was from the country of Georgia. Anyway, I'll never forget my visit to that Harley store!

One of the main places I wanted to visit was the Strand Bookstore, and it was on our list for the next day, but I knew there was a kiosk on the corner by Central Park, so we walked over there to check it out. I got a couple books there, but I saved my main browsing for tomorrow at the actual store.

Then it was time to go get my kids. Look how much we'd accomplished while they'd slept in!

Our first stop all together after lunch was Nike Town for my son, the sports' nut. This is a five story building full of everything Nike. He was in heaven. He got the new LeBron shoes and a pair of red shorts, the color of the school where he'll be teaching. The store has a special shoe elevator that sends up the size of shoes you need to try on after the sales clerk calls down to let somebody in the basement know. 

We stepped into Trump tower, but we didn't see a lot there. It was just to say we had more than for any other reason. 

Then we went to the main branch of the New York City library -- the famous one with the lions out front and with the beautiful Rose Reading Room. So cool. It is high on my list of places to revisit someday when I'm alone, so I can just go in there and sit for a few hours and read. 

Bryant Park is behind it, and it has special reading areas with books available as well. That's a place I'd be spending many a free day sitting and reading if I lived in NYC.

We walked around a bit more and wandered back through Times Square, stopping at a few stores. One was the M & M giant store where another funny thing happened. My daughter and I were paying for our purchases, and two of the clerks were wrapping our mugs in lots and lots of paper. They asked us where we were from, and I told them. They seemed really surprised when I said, "Nebraska," so I thought I'd surprise them even more. I told them that my town has about 1500 people in it, and they couldn't believe it. Then I told them there was a town nearby with only one person in it. The one lady's eyes got really big, and then she exclaimed, "Naw, you all are shittin' me!" I assured her I wasn't, but from then on, anytime we've been surprised by something, we look at each other and say in our best Southern drawl, which she had, "Naw, you all are shittin' me!" 

Supper that night was at an Irish Pub near the hotel where I ordered Bangers and Mash. Turns out that's just sausages and mashed potatoes, but I didn't know that until after I'd ordered it. Oh well.

The last full day in NYC started with a long subway ride across to Brooklyn -- meaning we passed under the East River, which was weird to realize, but otherwise uneventful. We met up with Jakub again for the day in Cadman Park, and from there we headed up to the pedestrian walkway across the iconic bridge. 

It's only one mile across, so it's not a big deal to walk it. The biggest thing is making sure to not accidentally step in the path of the numerous bicyclists crossing the bridge on the same walkway -- walkers and bikers each have their own sides, but some of the bikers really come whizzing by, so you still have to be careful.

I loved the views from the bridge and looking up at the structure of the bridge. 

Once across, we were in the heart of the heart of NYC. City Hall was right in front of us, and numerous other important government buildings were all around the area. 

We found a nearby pizzeria and had our cheapest meal of our stay in NYC. It was a large pizza that easily fed all five of us -- with drinks, it came to about 35 dollars!

Then we walked through Chinatown and Little Italy, which seems to have been overtaken by Chinatown making it perhaps Even Littler Italy? The day was really hot by then, so we cooled off a little in Washington Square Park before we headed to the store I'd long been anxious to see -- the Strand!

It's a three story bookstore which sells both new and used books along with some quite rare ones. It boasts 18 miles of books, and I believe it. I spent a couple hours there, and I would have stayed longer, but I hated to keep the rest waiting much more. 

I bought five books there, a Strand tote bag, some postcards and a New Yorker magnet for my refrigerator collection. Here are my book purchases for those interested: "The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead to add to my full Pulitzer Prize winners of fiction collection; "Thirty Stories" by Kay Boyle, an out-of-print 1946 edition; "Mildred Pierce" by James M. Cain; "The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs" by Nick Trout, which I started reading on the plane ride home and quickly finished later; "New York Stories: Everyman Pocket Classics," which I bought because I just had to, and then the two I'd bought at the Strand kiosk by Central Park were "The Revenant" by Michael Punke, and "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" by Alice Munro.

After we left the store, we walked and walked all the way back to the hotel, passing the Flatiron Building and Madison Square Garden.
The giant blister on my foot was testament to the amount of walking we'd done over the past few days, but it was well worth it. 





New York, thanks for the memories.