ClimbingSky

Why Baseball, Books, and the Grateful Dead matter

BOOK REVIEWS

  • Thoreau On Literature & Wilderness

    “A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.”  ~ W.H. Auden Thoreau did not write much memorable poetry. He did however keep a journal that contains some of the best “prose poetry” that has ever been written. In an effort to rekindle my own creative fires, I have Read more

  • Hardboiled Coffee Thoughts

    I got up and went to the coffee maker and poured myself half a cup. Steam rose off the dark surface, and I watched the wisps twist and dissipate before I turned back to Missy. “You’re right,” I said. “It took me a few extra years to figure that one out.” “ Why? I thought Read more

  • FRIDAY FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Wayne Overholser on Why We Don’t Have better Westerns

    “I have often wondered why we don’t have greater Western stories than we do. Great stories are there waiting to be dug out. There are hundreds of people far more worthy than the notorious Billy the Kid (upon whom the spotlight has fallen for years), unknown outside of their home neighborhood, robust people living in Read more

  • Hardboiled Coffee Taste

    I put the phone to bed and turned into the bathroom for a shower and a shave. I cooked water for coffee and drank it scaldingly black until things settled down between my ears. I put on a new suit and a sincere tie, and went downstairs. I slipped into a restaurant around the corner Read more

  • SHORT STORY REVIEW: “The Wife of Kenite” by Agatha Christie

    I have a stereotype of Agatha Christie based on the very few Hercule Poirot novels and short stories I have read thus far. The stereotype is that she writes classic Cozy Mysteries. Cozy Mysteries are a sub-genre of crime fiction in which sex and violence occur offstage, the detective is usually an amateur sleuth, and the crime and detection take place Read more

  • THROWBACK THURSDAY: Edgar Rice Burroughs

    “Throwback Thursdays” at ClimbingSky feature posts I wrote over 15 years for various blogs. This was first posted on February 2, 2012. I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. ~ Groucho Marx I must confess that I am a bad television Read more

  • The Loyal Friend

    I love books and reading. And I love collecting quotes. Here are just a few of my favorite quotes about reading and books. I hope you find a few you like and maybe a few for your own collection. Quotes on Books and Reading I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the Read more

  • Hardboiled Coffee Waiting

    He roamed around the apartment after breakfast. He hadn’t eaten heavily because he was afraid it wouldn’t stay down. He drank a small glass of orange juice and a cup of hot coffee. He washed the glass, the cup, and the saucer, and then began waiting for Babs to return. (cf. McBain, Ed. So Nude, Read more

  • FRIDAY FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Eagleton on Marx

    In our own time, as Marx predicted, inequalities of wealth have dramatically deepened. The income of a single Mexican billionaire today is equivalent to the earnings of the poorest seventeen million of his compatriots.            * * * * * * * * * *  Why do we continue to indulge Read more

  • Hardboiled Coffee Homburg

    Saturday noon he was moved in. He ate lunch out of his newly stocked double-door refrigerator, enjoying the manufacture of a jelly omelet and coffee black as his Homburg. (cf. Cox, William R.Make My Coffin Strong: A William R. Cox Hardboiled Mystery. Read more