When I was in college in Buffalo, I often went to the library on campus, set myself up in a carrel and isolated from distraction, pursued my studies.
My mother worked at the University in my last two years of school and so I'd ride in with her in the morning and home with her at night, spending the entire day on campus and a good portion of that in the library. I found it disciplined me to get my studies done. I'd pack all my books everyday and so I had the flexibility of studying one subject to exhaustion and then adding variety by pulling out another book. I remember I had a green bag with a pull cord and I could sling it over my shoulder.
But sometimes I'd leave the studies assigned to me and poke about in the library of books collected and just randomly read bits of the things for entertainment.
I did a similar thing when I taught.
I'd go to SUNY Albany or Sienna and poke around.
I dreamed of the kind of freedom I have now to just poke and wander through anything that catches my fancy, or follow a new idea wherever it might go.
Then, the rich collections in the library were what offered that sort of indulgence.
Now, I am connected to the same sort of wandering using my computer.
Most of my time in the book room I built here has been just arranging books and picking up bits of things and straightening up the space.
However, today I fell into that same indulgence that I remember feeling in college and even into some of the same ideas that I had then.
Poking around in books on my shelves I picked up an old story of Robin Hood, the edition (perhaps not the exact book) that I remember having as a child that I read or perhaps had it read to me.
cudgel - walking stick can be used as a weagon
I read the first chapter and did not remember it. It explained the actual act of poaching and the killing that set Robin Hood into the forest as a criminal. Little John was next, and I remember that well, but the first story was new to this old mind.
Perhaps because it is just one of a few that explain what forces Robin into being an outlaw
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/lucyjack/robinhood/path.html
I think the television version I watched as a kid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Robin_Hood_(TV_series)#Plot_and_Writing
used the version that stresses his fight against losing his father's heritage. I remember thought of his father were key in the old television series, but in this book we don't learn about his parents.
Howard Pyle collected this version of Robin Hood in 1883 and it was still in print when I was a lad in 1952. The story of Robin Hood is older, but this particular is the standard collection and the one that most know today
Here is the volume I own
http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Merry-Adventures-Of-Robin-Hood-By-Howard-Pyle-1952-HB/160718527583?rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222005%26algo%3DSIC.NUQ%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D15882%26meid%3D8110198422657884023%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D7473%26rk%3D1%26sd%3D160240327444%26
Then I picked up some Edgar Allen Poe and wandered into a critical essay called "The Philosophy of Composition" which talks about his writing process and uses for example the poem, The Raven.
As a high school student and in college I was very taken with The Raven and memorized parts of it. So here was a description in detail of exactly how Poe remembered composing it, what his purpose and thoughts were, and what and how he wanted it to mean.
A fantastic find right on my own bookshelf!
He talks of actually starting with the intention of producing melancholy as poetic tone and so chooses the word "Nevermore." Then he moves to arranging the repetition by putting the word and its sounds into the mouth of a bird that could repeat it almost devoid of meaning and yet create the mystery of meaningful purpose.
And then he wrote the climatic verse, setting up the rhythm and shape and the sound so he then could write the parts building to that "climacteric" effect.
The details of this process are really amazing given the long history I have with this particular poem.
And so my books and my exploration in my own book room echoes my childhood and my college youth in wonderfully rich and delicious ways.
How wonderful!
My mother worked at the University in my last two years of school and so I'd ride in with her in the morning and home with her at night, spending the entire day on campus and a good portion of that in the library. I found it disciplined me to get my studies done. I'd pack all my books everyday and so I had the flexibility of studying one subject to exhaustion and then adding variety by pulling out another book. I remember I had a green bag with a pull cord and I could sling it over my shoulder.
But sometimes I'd leave the studies assigned to me and poke about in the library of books collected and just randomly read bits of the things for entertainment.
I did a similar thing when I taught.
I'd go to SUNY Albany or Sienna and poke around.
I dreamed of the kind of freedom I have now to just poke and wander through anything that catches my fancy, or follow a new idea wherever it might go.
Then, the rich collections in the library were what offered that sort of indulgence.
Now, I am connected to the same sort of wandering using my computer.
Most of my time in the book room I built here has been just arranging books and picking up bits of things and straightening up the space.
However, today I fell into that same indulgence that I remember feeling in college and even into some of the same ideas that I had then.
Poking around in books on my shelves I picked up an old story of Robin Hood, the edition (perhaps not the exact book) that I remember having as a child that I read or perhaps had it read to me.
cudgel - walking stick can be used as a weagon
I read the first chapter and did not remember it. It explained the actual act of poaching and the killing that set Robin Hood into the forest as a criminal. Little John was next, and I remember that well, but the first story was new to this old mind.
Perhaps because it is just one of a few that explain what forces Robin into being an outlaw
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/lucyjack/robinhood/path.html
I think the television version I watched as a kid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Robin_Hood_(TV_series)#Plot_and_Writing
used the version that stresses his fight against losing his father's heritage. I remember thought of his father were key in the old television series, but in this book we don't learn about his parents.
Howard Pyle collected this version of Robin Hood in 1883 and it was still in print when I was a lad in 1952. The story of Robin Hood is older, but this particular is the standard collection and the one that most know today
Here is the volume I own
http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Merry-Adventures-Of-Robin-Hood-By-Howard-Pyle-1952-HB/160718527583?rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222005%26algo%3DSIC.NUQ%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D15882%26meid%3D8110198422657884023%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D7473%26rk%3D1%26sd%3D160240327444%26
Then I picked up some Edgar Allen Poe and wandered into a critical essay called "The Philosophy of Composition" which talks about his writing process and uses for example the poem, The Raven.
As a high school student and in college I was very taken with The Raven and memorized parts of it. So here was a description in detail of exactly how Poe remembered composing it, what his purpose and thoughts were, and what and how he wanted it to mean.
A fantastic find right on my own bookshelf!
He talks of actually starting with the intention of producing melancholy as poetic tone and so chooses the word "Nevermore." Then he moves to arranging the repetition by putting the word and its sounds into the mouth of a bird that could repeat it almost devoid of meaning and yet create the mystery of meaningful purpose.
And then he wrote the climatic verse, setting up the rhythm and shape and the sound so he then could write the parts building to that "climacteric" effect.
The details of this process are really amazing given the long history I have with this particular poem.
And so my books and my exploration in my own book room echoes my childhood and my college youth in wonderfully rich and delicious ways.
How wonderful!
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