Go Down, Moses

I'm only a few stories into Go Down, Moses but I'm enjoying it. There's a bit of the Brer Rabbit feel to it. Something about this Faukner that I really like.

Book Quote

From Google's Quote of the Day:

Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content.
- Paul Valery

Interesting Cover Choices

I confess I didn't read this book. It just happened to make me laugh out loud in a coffee shop while perusing one person's selection of
Bookcovers that are just plain wrong.

Life Is Like Smoking

excerpt from drunken conversation under mosquito netting:

"Before I was twenty, I mean, I used to think that life was a thing that kept gaining impetus. It would get richer and deeper each year. You kept learning more, getting wiser, having more insight, going further into the truth-" She hesitated.

Port laughed abruptly. "And now you know it's not like that. Right? It's more like smoking a cigarette. The first few puffs it tastes wonderful, and you don't even think of its ever being used up. Then you begin taking it for granted. Suddenly you realize it's nearly burned down to the end. And then's when you're conscious of the bitter taste."

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.