Fun at the Hop & Friday Five

'Tis been a busy summer so far.  Visits with our children and the grandchildren too!  At the same time, I am also really trying to stay focused and busy with my reading.  I am also very honored to be leading a group-read of Thomas Hardy's novel, Far From the Madding Crowd, on Goodreads.com in the "Victorians" group, and it is turning out to be an absolute blast.  I am also experiencing for the first time the powerful poetry of Thomas Hardy.  And as hard as it may be to believe, I am coming to realize that Hardy may be an even better poet than prose writer.

But It is Friday, and it is time to 'Hop.'  This is my third 'Hop', and I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying meeting all of you who love books as much as I do, and finding some really terrific blogs to follow.  The 'Hop' is the brainchild of Jennifer at Crazy for Books.  You can go here to her fun blog and learn more about the 'Hop' and sign yourself up too.

This week's Book Blogger Hop question is:  "How many blogs do you follow?"

[Looking slightly sheepish]  Currently, I am only following twenty different blogs.  Most of them are book blogs too.  I do try, each and every day, to scroll down and see what my peers are posting about, and I also try and leave meaningful comments as appropriate.  I have to happily confess that several of the blogs that I now follow are ones that I have discovered through my two previous 'Hops,' so Jennifer's notion was a truly good one--it works!  I know that I will be finding more of you out there too, and I look forward to it!

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Another blog I enjoy is Kate's Library and Kate offers a fun and nifty weekly activity called "The Friday Five."  Here, we are encouraged to share several interesting blog postings that we encountered during the week.  Like the 'Hop,' it is a great way for all of us to move about the blogosphere and find other cool sites and postings.  Should you like to participate in "The Friday Five" go visit Kate's Library, just 'for the joy of reading,' and join in the fun!  Here are my offerings (three this time, more to follow soon)--

Brenna at Literary Musings wrote an absolutely brilliant review of Henry James's "Washington Square."  This was a novel that I first read when in the U.S. Coast Guard in my early twenties, and I was completely blown away.  Brenna is a great writer, and I encourage you to stop by and check out what she's reading and writing about!

Isaac at The Tower of Stories is a blogger that tends to focus on short story fiction.  Shorts tend to be bypassed by many of us, and at our peril I say.  If you're looking for good short story authors, recommended collections, and reviews, Isaac is your guy.  Give him a look, and go find some short stories to read.

Finally, if you love books and 'Dinner and a Movie,' please stop by and visit Every Book and Cranny.  She has some absolutely terrific postings, and features her love of books, great food, and all-things Alfred Hitchcock!  Great fun!

So, have fun hopping about and checking out some new literary blogs.  It'll do you good!  I wish you all a wonderful weekend!  Thanks for stopping by and visiting!

'Hop' August Nights

I just returned from several days of park-'hopping' with my wife and five-year-old grandson!  Living in southern California makes it kind of easy too.  We visited Disneyland (a very long day!), and then spent a day a couple of days just north of San Diego, in Carlsbad, California, visiting Legoland and the SeaLife Aquarium.  Each morning the 'little guy' woke up chock full of energy and he made sure that we packed in as much fun as possible each day too.  We all had a blast, and it was simply priceless to see the look of pure joy on his face as he went from adventure and experience to the next!

Now you know why I am a day late in adding my 'Book Blogger Hop' posting here on my blog.  Well, better late than never!  This is my second time participating in the 'Hop', and I'm enjoying meeting all of you who love books as much as I do, and finding some really terrific blogs to follow.  I'd like to thank Jennifer at Crazy for Books for sponsoring the weekly Book Blogger Hop.  You can go here to learn more about the 'Hop' and sign up.

This week's Book Blogger Hop question is:  "How many books do you have on your 'To Be Read' shelf?"

 I really couldn't hazard a guess as to how many books are on my TBR shelves.  I have a bunch though!

Over the past few years, in an effort to more effectively manage my reading, I have developed a process that seems to work pretty well for me.  When I find an author that I like, I tend to try and read that author's entire oeuvre, or at least a solid and very representative portion of their work.  For example, in late-2008 and a good portion of 2009, I read the fiction of Charles Dickens in the order that he wrote them.  Not only did I read some terrific novels, but I was also able to follow Dickens's maturation and evolution as an author and story-teller.  I have since done the same with the Brontes, Wilkie Collins, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, and Elizabeth Gaskell.

This summer I have been exploring the work of George Eliot and Thomas Hardy.  Also, so that I don't become too narrowly constrained, I tend to read something a little different in and among my primary reading.  This summer I have managed to sprinkle some very enjoyable reading of the short stories of Sarah Orne Jewett and Edith Wharton in with my more deliberate and studious reading of Hardy and Eliot.

Have a wonderful weekend!  'Hop' around and make some new friends and find some new books to read.  Thanks for stopping by and visiting!

A Summer of Hummingbirds

This is the start of our second summer with two giant hummingbird feeders hanging on the slatted roof over the patio. Each feeder holds a quart of sugar water, and the little whirling dervishes go through both in about 48 hours! At times there can be a dozen, or more, of these flying jewels, whirring about and queuing up at each feeder. I have had several species come to the feeders, but typically the two species most prominently represented are Anna's (Calypte anna) and Allen's (Selasphorus sasin). We have lots of hanging flowers and pots of flowers scattered about the patio, and I think this helps draw the little fellows in too. I think they are truly one of my favorite little birds.

Speaking of hummingbirds -- I found a book yesterday in the bargain rack at Barnes & Noble (my favorite new book bookstore) that I am quite excited to read. For $5.98, I purchased a copy of A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, & Martin Johnson Heade, by Christopher Benfey. Dr. Benfey is a professor of English at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. I am sure that most of you have heard of everyone in the title of the book but Martin Johnson Heade. Mr. Heade (1819-1904) was a painter of hummingbirds! 'Google' his name and treat yourself to some of the most exquisite paintings of plants and hummingbirds. He was also an artist of the "Hudson River School" (mid-19th century) with the likes of Thomas Moran, Thomas Cole, and Albert Bierstadt. I have posted one of Mr. Heade's beautiful paintings below, and you can 'click' on it to see it larger.

Finally, to conclude our little homage to our tiny energetic feathered friends, the hummingbirds; how about two poems from the 'Belle of Amherst' herself, Emily Dickinson --

Within my Garden, rides a Bird
Upon a single Wheel--
Whose spokes a dizzy Music make
As 'twere a traveling Mill--

He never stops, but slackens
Above the Ripest Rose--
Partakes without alighting
And praises as he goes,

Till every spice is tasted--
And then his Fairy Gig
Reels in remoter atmospheres--
And I rejoin my Dog,

And He and I, perplex us
If positive, 'twere we--
Or bore the Garden in the Brain
This Curiosity--

But He, the best Logician,
Refers my clumsy eye--
To just vibrating Blossoms!
An Exquisite Reply!

(No. 500, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Edited by Thomas H. Johnson, Little, Brown and Co., 1960)

A Route of Evanescence
With a revolving Wheel--
A Resonance of Emerald--
A Rush of Cochineal--
And every Blossom on the Bush
Adjusts its tumbled Head--
The mail from Tunis, probably,
An easy Morning's Ride--

(No. 1463, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Edited by Thomas H. Johnson, Little, Brown and Co., 1960)