Prose

On New Year's Eve I went, as I have gone for the past decade or more, to St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral here in Seattle to walk the labyrinth. Each last day of the calendar year, the folks at St. Mark's push aside the two central tiers of pews and spread a tarpaulin carpet on the floor imprinted with a replica of the labyrinth that is carved in stone into the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France. Read more about The Blank Page

"Were there Uncles like in our house?"
"There are always Uncles at Christmas"

In my little corner of the universe, almost everybody gets a book for Christmas. The following are some of my favorites, all but mine published more than ten years ago.

Barbara Stoner. Yes. I'm suggesting my very own, because I think it's actually a very good first novel. Luckily, most of my readers think so too.

In the December issue of Opera News, Brian Kellow wrote, in On the Beat, about an opera he imagines. He calls Jean Rhys's novel, , a "novel that sings." I have yet to read Wide Sargasso Sea, and if I were prone to hairshirts, I suppose I should slip one on for this transgression. Read more about How Cool Would This Be?

You can pick up the damndest tidbits just driving around in the car, as I was doing this morning listening to a lecture from The Great Courses on Boethius and . The lecturer was going on about the concept of consolation at work in this, that and the other work of Great Lit and I was nodding along (but not off) when my ears pricked up.

J.R.R. Tolkien? Really? Read more about The Consolation of Galadriel

THEN I SAW THE CONGO, CREEPING THROUGH
THE BLACK,
CUTTING THROUGH THE JUNGLE WITH A
GOLDEN TRACK.

In other words, the Goddam Grateful Dead! Read more about Thanks for the GDGD!

Greenwood Books Balderdash Books Read more about Decline and Fall

Kicking off election week, I decided to post another bookstore review from the turn of the century. I am proud to have helped procure some funds from the Grateful Dead's Rex Foundation for Books to Prisoners - I've got the t-shirt to prove it.

Left Bank Books

Inventory: Radical politics, anti-authoritarian, independent, left-wing, small press

Left Bank Books is probably best described by their own hand-out sheet.

Gary’s Games & Hobbies
8539 Greenwood Ave. N.
Seattle, WA 98103
Inventory: Games, models, puzzles, books

Something else we do in Seattle on rainy days. Read more about Games? You wanna play games?