Solitary Vice

I haven't been on this blog for a seriously long time. I have done some writing and some reading since I last posted. Actually, make that a lot of reading and a little writing.
Anyway ... I have been reading a really good book called "The Solitary Vice" by Mikita Brottman (I'll post more about this later). I've also been reading quite a bit of Nicholson Baker recently. I re-read "The Fermata" (which is excellent). I restarted and finished "The Mezzanine" which is really good, but not quite so much fun (that was why I gave up last time, I suppose). And I have just read "Double Fold" - his book about the destruction of books in libraries as a result of programs of microfilming etc. For me, that's quite a "spree". I normally like to read a bit more chaotically than that. Well, maybe it isn't chaotic. In fact I have a bit of a theory. I call it "Reading Trajectories", although (now I think about it again) I should perhaps have called it "reading webs". Here it is anyway (it was part of a document I wrote at work (a school) about learning).

4. Making Connections – Reading (Learning?) Trajectories

Being able to make links between different areas of knowledge or expertise is an essential aspect of learning. For me this manifests itself mainly through the patterns I see (or deliberately create) in my reading. There is often a link between the book I am currently reading and something I have previously read. This “trajectory” also extends beyond the current book to something I will read in the future. On the simplest level I may be reading a book by an author I’ve read before and whose other books I intend to read. Such simple “trajectories” also include reading within a particular genre or subject area. But the patterns we create in our reading can be more complex and interesting.

For example: I recently read the travel book Chasing Che (Patrick Symmes). In this book he visits Pumalin Park – a wilderness reserve set up by a radical environmentalist. This fired my interest and I am now reading Deep Ecology (Bill Devall and George Sessions); this was a book that inspired the founder of Pumalin Park (I found this out on the Pumalin website). In the course of reading about ecology I heard about a novel A Friend of the Earth by T.C. Boyle (I’ve read one of his before) which is about an aging radical environmentalist. The web of interconnections goes further. Deep Ecology mentions the poems of Robinson Jeffers, someone I already liked; reading the book has led me to read more of his work. My interest in radical groups has lead me to find out about Earth First! and to get a journal called Do or Die! which features articles about EF! and other groups. I also want to read some of the writings of Rachel Carson, whose Silent Spring was very influential in the early days of the environmental movement. All of this also reminded me of some of the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, especially “Binsey Poplars”, which (perhaps surprisingly) has much in common with the perspective of Earth First!ers. This strand in my learning was greatly encouraged by my visit to The Eden Project in the summer. It’s linked in my mind with other important (for me) cultural objects such as the film Silent Running and the song “Woodstock”.

Clearly, the connections ramify on and on.

I think that reading the Brottman book has just "reminded" me that I do write about reading quite often. For instance, some of the other posts here are relevant (Reader's Block, Book Crossing, Unputdownable, Writers, Preface and Prefaces).

Well, it feels good to have written something on here again. Maybe I will try to add some more "content".