Ok, I lied

Though I had every intention of reading the book I last wrote about, this other book sauntered up to me, and I read it instead. don't blame me, blame this little tart of a book.

Maybe you have heard of Clever Hans, the "educated horse" that was exposed as a fraud. Well, Jim Key was a horse owned by William Key. He became a media sensation who toured the country around the turn of the 20th century. He did "tricks" including spelling names, adding, making change, and picking up a silver dollar from the bottom of a pail full of water. It is part biography. part social history, and just a very fun book to read.

William Key had a gift of being able to work with animals from a very young age, he had already made a small fortune in the patent medicine biz from the liniment he invented(it could be used by horses or people) by the time Jim Key became a superstar.

Lots of fascinating details are given about William Keys life, including his time in the Civil War looking out for the sons of his "owner", to how he toured the south with his medicine show(which included minstrels), how he became a self-taught vet and a racetrack owner. All of this in central Tennesee.

Jim Key was a sickly colt. William Key's workers at one point begged him to put him down, but he could not of course. He was too soft-hearted. One day Jim, who followed William everywhere like a dog, fetched a stick that was thrown for one of the dogs. William then started to train Jim, and took him on tour with the medicine show. They attracted the attention of a promoter, and within a short time they were on the way to stardom. Jim was used to help promote the humane movement, and was part of a Be Kind to Animals pledge taken by school children.

Though you might not be convinced of any reasoning abilities that Jim possessed, you would be convinced of the almost other-worldly bond between an above-average horse and his caretaker.

This will be the next book I read

I saw him on The Daily Show, and was just taken with this author. He built a windmill in his village from scrap parts, with a library book as instructor, while his country of Malawi was in unrest and famine, when he was 14 years old.

Some Horses

Entertaining essays on horses and horsemen, the author concentrates mostly on ranch and cutting horses. He lives in Montana and even though he is a successful writer, he also competes in cutting horse competitions all over the west. Horse lovers will like the book of course, but even if you are not that attracted to horses, you may really appreciate the author's dry wit and humorous descriptions. I have read a number of his novels as well and really enjoyed them.

eat, pray, love

I did not really think I would like this book as much as I did, but once I started it, I read it in just 2 nights. Mostly I was jealous of the author. As a successful writer, and even after a financially disastrous divorce, she was able to take 1 year to go to 3 places and look into things for herself. Her writing style in very engaging, and she is unafraid to delve into the heart of the matter she was dealing with. In Italy she eats, and eats, and eats. With no thought to weight gain, she just eats. Her descriptions of the food make you just wish you were there, eating whatever she is eating. She also wants to learn Italian, just because she always wanted to. Of course she also meets people ( it does seem her primary focus is on the eating, she also had a rather heart-breaking love-affair on the heels of the divorce. She just fills her heart with food of the real kind, as a healing agent.) Then it is off to India to be in real-life ashram.(she had met a guru, while she was with her lover) This part seems like it could be really cheesy, but her candor and honestly about the experience come through, and it gave me insights into what undertaking that experience could be like. For the last part she goes to Bali, again to study with someone, an old medicine man (who she also met when she was with her lover), the Bali part of the story is filled with people she meets and hangs out with. This part gathers up the insights from her previous experiences, it is filled with wonderfully descripive anecdotes and insights. I like to read memoirs and travel books, and I would count this as one of my favorites.

King Arthur

Has anyone read John Steinbeck's retelling of Mallory's King Arthur stories? He never finished the retelling of these tales. However, what he did was mostly really good even though they were only first and second drafts. Steinbeck said that he translated Mallory into modern english before writing his version. I think some of this book was his translation only of Mallory, and some was his re-telling of these stories. He seemed to understand the original stories, which Mallory re-told hundreds of years after they were originally told and written.

A large part of the book was Steinbeck's letters to his editor and publisher. These letters were as interesting as his stories. He discussed mythology and story telling.

I'd love to hear from others who read this book, and know if there are any other good translations of Mallory and other Arthurian stories.

Not Dead Yet

I had given up on this blog, and thought perhaps it was time to retire it.

I changed my mind.

I'm not ready to write this one off just yet. It's true that my Goodreads obsession has sort of filled the void, but my cousin said she had taken a lot of pictures of books that she would be willing to post. I too have some ideas for posts, such as "Pulitzers You can Take to the Beach."