Marian over at Classics Considered just posted a survey, and I figured — why not?
If you go back and read one book for the first time again, which would it be?
Probably the first Wodehouse novel I read, just for experiencing that language for the first time.
Do you eat ice cream, and if so, what is your favorite flavor?
Ice cream is too delicious a treat to indulge in too much. My favorite kind of ice cream treat is vanilla with a chocolate ‘shell’: think Klondike bars!
What was the most memorable event or concert you ever attended?
I hate crowds and loud noises, so I’ve never been to a ‘traditional’ concert. I have attended smaller musical performances, like chamber music recitations, but the most memorable performance I’ve ever attended was Bobby Horton’s celebration of Alabamian folk music back in December 2019. I’ve been listening to his music since the nineties, and it inspired my college senior thesis. Meeting him was an absolute joy! Horton has released many ‘homespun’ collections of folk music, chiefly from the Civil War years but throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. They’re home-spun because he does all of the vocals and instrumentation separately, and then combines them. I’m embedding a favorite, “The Rose of Alabama”, below. He’s done numerous Union and Confederate collections, Songs of the 19th century, Songs of Faith, and Songs of the Revolution.
What do you like best about yourself?
I’ve never lost the universal curiosity of childhood that I fear many adults have.
Is there a book you would never, ever read?
Fifty Shades of Gray. Not happening.
Second-best way to spend a rainy day? (Reading is the best, right?)
Breaking my record for pots of coffee consumed while listening to music and..probably playing a PC game, if I’m honest.
Cats or dogs?
Oh, easy. Dogs. They’re smelly, noisy, and an all around mess — but they’re pals. Cats have their pleasures, but dogs are easier to get along with in general.
Best pizza topping combo?
I’m partial to pepperoni, green peppers, and olives. Quite boring.
If you could recommend one fictional book, what would it be?
Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry. It’s only my absolute favorite novel.
Earliest reading memory?
Lying in bed with my father, listening to him read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer aloud.
What’s something you’re looking forward to this year?
Spring…and that’s really about it. 2020 has disabused me of the habit of hoping for much. Flowers, though, those I can count on. Especially the Cahaba lilies…
Reading Freely 
I love folk songs and folk music! I definitely have grown up, and my kids and I have been following folk music through the years, since the founding of America. I especially love how America has a unique story to tell through folk song (a mixing of European, Native American, African American, and the Wild West). It’s really beautiful.
Oh, yeah, I’d never read 50 Shades either.
And that’s really cool that your dad read TS to you.
It’s been a passion of mine since ’07, when I began using youtube to actively explore for more material like Horton’s. 🙂 It’s through folk music traditions that I began to appreciate how culture works…how people borrow songs and add or subtract verses to them, or put the lyrics to different music altogether, etc. I find it fun to get interested in a song and then try to chase down as many of its variants as I can. I was doing that this weekend with “Rye Whiskey”. So far my favorite version is Stringbean’s.
I have noticed that, too, that I can never find two versions (lyrics) of folksong the same. Sometimes drives me crazy. Which one was the original? LOL!
Oh, that’s like when a husband tells a story one way, and the wife tells the story another….they each embellish it a little differently! I suppose we could say the form of the song which appears in the oldest songbook is the ‘original’, but that ignores the fact that songbooks often recorded what was the most popular variant, not necessarily the original.
I think that ’50 Shades..’ is something we can all agree on!
great that your dad read to you! Lightning Hopkins has been one of my favorite folk singer types… i’ve tried w/o success to imitate some of his guitar riffs…
I’ve not heard of Hopkins, but I’ll be sure to dig around youtube for him! On the reading…we were (and are) a reading family — though with my dad it’s mostly westerns. 😉
That the author of 50 Shades is now a millionaire, depresses me. I agree with childlike curiousity as well. I think I have lost a lot of my sense of wonder and forgetting everything to just live in a moment (like when my teenager cousins would swing me back and forth holding my hands and feet and then swinging me all the way over. I was six years old at the time. I’ll never get that thrill back).
But I am still very interested in people and learning new things!
i recognize you on the right, but who’s the young fellow on the left?
Oh, he’s not so young…has a birthday coming up, in fact. O_O
“he does all of the vocals and instrumentation separately” – 😮 I have SO much respect for musicians who do this! He’s a great singer – I just listened to his Yellow Rose of Texas and now on Old Dan Tucker…
I’m looking forward to spring, too. I’m planning to get back into walking/hiking and maybe go to some outdoor concerts!
Hiking has its pleasures in the winter — fewer people to crowd the trail, and so fewer illicit beercans and boomboxes. I imagine winter is a very different experience in the PNW, though!
Glad you enjoyed Bobby! He’s an Alabama treasure.
Hear, hear, for the universal curiosity of childhood! May it never leave you!
Jayber Crow is awesome, is it? Is it the first in the series? If not, do I have to read it first? I almost ordered it the other day but paperbacks are SOOOO expensive now and I am not thrilled about reading anything that special on Kindle.
And as for your last paragraph, I’ll leave you a quote from The Count of Monte Cristo: “All human wisdom is contained in these two words – Wait and Hope” Not sure what that means, lol! Have a great day!
Jayber Crow isn’t the first in the series, but with the Port William books I don’t know that it makes a difference which way you come into town, so to speak. The same characters live in every novel, and the reader will learn different little bits about them in different stories, until they seem like real people. I personally think Jayber Crow is the best starting place because the reader encounters Port William with him, a transient who’s searching for something (he doesn’t quite know what) and ends up in town, learning its story afresh.
Thanks for the reminder from Monte Christo — that’s about all we can do!