William Claspy wrote:
On 7/14/06 2:06 PM, in article , "JR"
wrote:


(unless Wolfgang wants me to pass it on to him).

Coals to Newcastle, my friend. Coals to Newcastle.

Actually, more like offering a glass of water to a drowning man.


I'd have replied to this thread sooner, but the title rang a faint
bell.......had to wait till I got home and rummaged through the card
catalog......which was (and remains.....mostly) under a pile of clothes
and.....what else?.....books.

Turns out I already have a copy of "A Jerk on One End," a gift (part of
a large armload) from Joel back in February. Haven't read it yet. A
brief scan of the files reveals that it has not yet made the "to be
read soon" list. This should not be construed as disparaging in any
way......hell, how would I know?.....the list is semi-imaginary,
completely arbitrary, highly changeable, and generally ignored anyway.
The good news is it's all mine, and I get to do whatever I want with
it.

Anyway, thanks for thinking of me, JR.

And thanks for the heads ups, IJ. It might interest you to know that I
recently took up one of your previous recommendations from a few months
ago. A couple of weeks ago I finally finished (after a long delay
occasioned by slaving for two solid weeks on Becky's new backyard deck)
"The Founding Fish." As I may have mentioned here, I wasn't really
eager to delve into McPhee again after choking on "Annals of The Former
World" sometime last year and having maxed out on fishing literature
some years before. They say you can't judge a book by its
cover.....but this one grabbed me. Good thing. I'd fogotten how good
McPhee at his best really is. He will never be a truly great writer,
but he has at least one trick up his sleeve that makes the time
expended in reading him well spent. I don't believe I have ever
encountered another writer who can pack as much information into
readble sentences as he does. Definitely worth the effort and (coming,
as it did, from the bargain bin) expense.

Wolfgang
well, well, all this talk of books makes a boy think maybe he really
SHOULD take kennie's advice........and learn to read.