Wednesday, January 18, 2012

marcus braga::homesteading










...
as for my 2012 reading, i've begun a handful of books in the past couple weeks but haven't become attached enough to any to continue past the second chapter.  i did read about 1/2 of thoreau's walden.  i don't think i've ever read it in it's entirety.  but i'm putting it down for now.  

at first i was going to muscle through each book i pick up no matter what as a way of challenging myself and cultivating some reading discipline.  but that worked better in theory than in practice.  i tried starting those books i have on my shelves which i keep intending to read,  thinking that i have enough material here to keep me busy for the year.

but then yesterday, feeling uninspired and wanting to get into a book, needing really to be absorbed by another world, i stopped at the library after dropping my outgoing packages at the post office.

i came home with 2 titles i had scrawled in my notebook.  the first i started last night is this life is in your hands by melissa coleman.  coleman is the daughter of garden guru eliot coleman and this book is a memoir of her childhood growing up in maine next door to helen and scott nearing.  there is tragedy in the book and an intimate recounting of homesteading in the 70s.  

if you know me at all you know that this is a world i feel like i've inhabited, maybe in some parallel universe.  i've read about it enough.  i've dreamed about it enough.  and now at this point in my life i think it's probably an experience which will remain within the boundaries of my imagination.


6 comments:

Nell said...

the coleman book is great but very heavy. i read about ten pages at a time, feel overwhelmed by what i know is coming and then have to put it down for a few days. just a terrible family tragedy...

christine said...

You might want to try reading Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry. a beautiful book about country living and a love story.

Julie said...

Are you familiar with Twelve by Twelve by William Powers? I'm reading it right now, borrowed from a friend. I put Walden aside, in order to read this one...

woodbird said...

I wrote a review-ish piece about "This Life" on woodbird last winter. Feel free to check it out...under the subject heading "homesteading." ~R

Liane said...

robin- i did read. in fact, i think that's how the book title got into my notebook! conflicting thoughts about homesteading, somewhat similar and somewhat different as yours. maybe talk to you about it in person.

Liane said...

christine and julie- thanks for the suggestions! i will look both up. i have a few wendell berry books on my shelf and they are some of the ones i speak of when i say "always intend to get to." but i don't have the one mentioned here.
nell- having come out of a handful of heavy events in my personal life (not death) i feel almost immune to being overwhelmed by them. however there is a little chill hanging over me with this book knowing what's coming.