Friday, August 20, 2010

Words I like

I think "estuary" is a pretty word. To me, it makes me think of the calm, quiet, flat areas on Cape Cod where salt marsh grass grows and the wind stirs the grass just slightly. And there are wild birds and the tide goes in and out.

Actually, a lot of the ecological/geographic words are sort of evocative and nice. One of the reasons I like reading books (like E.C. Pielou's "Fresh Water," and her "After the Ice Age," which I should really find, start back up, and finish reading) is that there are new terms I don't know that I learn, some of which are very evocative.

I started reading John Madsen's "Up on the River" (about the stretch of the Mississippi that is "between the Saints" - that is, ranging from St. Paul to St. Louis) the other day. I think I'll be quoting bits of it here.

I think one of the things I'm going to buy this weekend is a nice, permanent bound book. I think I want to start keeping a commonplace book with things out of books I've read - or quotations I hear - that I like.

I'm also reading "In the Spirit of Happiness" by the Monks of New Skete. I've already underlined (in pencil, and it was even hard to bring myself to do that, even in a book I own) passages I felt like I needed to be able to find again. There are so many wonderful things in that book. About slowing down, and listening, and not letting things get in the way of the important things in life.

1 comment:

Charlotte said...

This is a good idea. Jan Karon in her Mitford books has her main character keep a book of quotations he likes. She has published his journal of quotes and it's fun to read them. I should think keeping your own book would be even more interesting.