Category Archives: General

COVID Diary # 9: Out of Quarantine

Posted on October 11, 2020 by

On Thursday, September 24th, I was off work pending the results of a COVID test; I didn’t think much of it, since I only go to 4 places these days and am masked at all of them except for the … Continue reading →

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Scaling Mount Doom: September 2019

Posted on October 1, 2020 by

Beginning last month, I decided to start doing a monthly ‘face-the-verdict’ post  to help me stay focused on my TBR takedown, and the related goal of further minimizing my book collection. This month bears witness to the fact that I’m … Continue reading →

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Classics Club….FINALE!

Posted on September 8, 2020 by

Yesterday, I finished The Brothers Karamazov, and, with that last page, completed  the Classics Club challenge.   I began the challenge in September 2015, and pecked away until late  2018, when I realized I had two years left and over half … Continue reading →

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Scaling Mount Doom: August 2020

Posted on August 30, 2020 by

At the end of July I hit on an idea for reconciling my growing TBR Pile of Doom with my  intractable hunger for more books:  for every four TBR books I read, I’d allow myself to buy one book.  In … Continue reading →

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Progress report of sorts

Posted on August 7, 2020 by

A few weeks back, I read an article from Leo Babauta, of Zen Habits,  which  offered readers both an observation and a challenge: You can go to the latest memes and viral videos (which are fun!) … or you can … Continue reading →

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Corona Diary #8

Posted on June 18, 2020 by

Well, the partial re-opening lasted exactly a month. In the face of skyrocketing ‘rona rates across the state, and particularly in the county,  the library today shifted back to curbside-only.   (Since May 18th, we have been following a split schedule:  … Continue reading →

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Corona #7…and Flowers

Posted on May 18, 2020 by

Things have been loosening up in Alabama in the last week,  though it’s not a return to life pre-pandemicmonium.  Right now we’re in a frustrating transition space, where stores are  getting increased demand at much-reduced capacity.   Nonprofits and the like … Continue reading →

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Farewell and adieu, ye fair English book-reads

Posted on May 4, 2020 by

So ends another April, and with it — Read of England.   Perhaps this April should have been watch of England, since I did re-watch Fawlty Towers (for the 856th time, I think), began exploring Sherlock and Outlander, revisited most of … Continue reading →

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COVID Diary #6

Posted on May 1, 2020 by

As the expiration date for the governor’s stay-at-home order approaches, we in the Heart of Dixie have been waiting expectantly to see what will happen. The governor declined to open early last week, when the states surrounding us did, and … Continue reading →

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Corona Diary #5

Posted on April 14, 2020 by

Library service, corona style! Sunday, all news of pandemics disappeared as we in Alabama looked to the darkening skies and wondered what Easter night would bring.  It was nine years ago that an April outburst of tornadoes killed over three … Continue reading →

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