Books & Ideas
If you look up libraries on Wikipedia, you’ll learn that a golden age arose from 1600 to 1700 when cities all over the world had to erect a big, baroque building for books. If there’s ever been a new claim for a golden age, it’s right here, right now, involving our Island libraries, all of them, where circulation is up as never before (25 per cent at the Edgartown library alone), and community participation is off the charts.
West Tisbury’s Mill Pond was all white;
The snow on the cattails a pretty sight.
The mallards were swimming up and down.
Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories, by Simon Winchester, HarperCollins Publishers, 496 pages, illustrated. $27.99.
It would be hard to live on the Vineyard and not have an interest in the Atlantic Ocean. So much of the Island has been colored and shaped by the sea. You can smell the ocean here and feel it all around you.
A new book, Atlantic, is a biography of the ocean. What is most striking about this long book is its scope.
Martha’s Vineyard Tile
Vineyard Stories has just published its sixteenth book about the Vineyard.
Last summer the press featured Schooner: Building a Wooden Boat on Martha’s Vineyard and The Bike Ride. Both books received great reviews and recognition. Schooner was named one of the 100 best photo books of 2010 by Snapshot magazine. The Bike Ride, a book for children, was endorsed by the Nature Conservancy for its contributions in the area of conservation.
It’s cold out. Snow flurries have been sighted. Perhaps a big dump is on the way. The more mild-mannered of us, let’s face it, the majority of us, take this as a sign to head indoors each evening to wrap ourselves in a snuggie and sit by the fire.
Wussies. Housecats. City slicker softies. Might as well head to Florida with the other snowbirds.
But there is an alternative for those who want to get in touch with their inner Farley Mowat.
Spice of Life
Storytelling is her game, Susan Klein is her name. The name of her hugely popular memoir-writing workshop is Spice of Life.
If you want the benefit of Ms. Klein’s organization and writing advice, sign up now for the Spice that arrives in January: the next workshop will be held on Thursday afternoons, 1 to 3:30 p.m. weekly from Jan. 6 to March 3 next year at the Tisbury Senior Center, 34 Pine Tree Road in Vineyard Haven.