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tapbirds

tapbirds

An avid reader, runner, biker, birder, backpacker, and swimmer; a sinner saved by grace.
"It's an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be seen in San Francisco. It must be a delightful city and posses all the attractions of the next world." (Oscar Wilde)
"Excessive devotions to books is wearying to the body" (Ecclesiastes 12:12) more »
  • San Francisco, CA, USA
  • member since August 30 2007

Public Notes

 
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Displaying 1-20 of 335 notes
  • Nonna

    Nonna says

    Wishing you and your family a Beautiful Holiday Season and a Healthy Successful New Year.

    Carol

    posted 4 days ago. ( send a note )
  • Jay C

    Jay C says

    From snowy Ontario to, hopefully sunny, San Francisco...my best Christmas wishes.
    It has been wonderful having you with us on the Alex' Forum. I very much appreciate your contributions.
    Have a great Holiday season. Jay

    posted 12 days ago. ( send a note )
  • Regina L

    Regina L says

    UGH! My computer just ate my reply to you. Guess it didn't get enough to eat at Thanksgiving.

    I thought about you when I read The Forgers Spell. If you love art and/or WWII history you'd like it. With your knowledge of Holland you would probably enjoy it even more. It is not highly intellectual, but it is a real fun read about a Dutch forger that duped the Nazis (and many other) into thinking a new line of Vermeers had been discovered. I have a detailed review on my shelf if you are interested.

    Thanksgiving was good. We had my mom's side of the family over at our new house, which was fun. I lost my mom two years ago. I still miss her tremendously. Enjoy your mom every minute you have her.

    I'll be out of touch for awhile after today. I'll post request for nominations on the next CROAH in January. Good talking to you.

    posted 3 weeks ago. ( send a note )
  • Dave M

    Dave M says

    Thanks for your note on newspapers. There is not doubt that the quality of most newspapers has suffered. I still like them despite their flaws.

    Dave

    posted 3 weeks ago. ( send a note )
  • Regina L

    Regina L says

    OK. I'm definitely adding The Last Tsar to my TBR. Did I send you a note on The Forgers Spell? I couldn't remember. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • She

    She says

    By the way, I'd love it if you'd drop in to our Alexandria Forum group - there are some very interesting discussions and I would be most interested in getting your learned opinions and thoughts on our ideas and threads...

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • She

    She says

    I JUST connected with Laxness' "Independent People" at around page 70ish. I had read reviews and knew I needed to stick to it - and the cold setting didn't help. Thanks for the encouragement.

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • She

    She says

    I borrowed a book from your shelf, "Wild Thorns" and was amazed to read a perspective that I am so unfamiliar with. I thought at first, oh, just a couple hundred pages, more like a novella. But, alas, when I had to go back and forth several times to see if I missed some detail that helped describe what this young man was feeling and thinking. It was similar in this fashion of Helen Mueller's two pieces that I've recently finished too. Life beneath such totalitarian rule smothers and twists reason and compassion - how can humanity survive?

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • Don K.

    Don K. says

    I have also got a copy of The Land of Green Plums sitting on my shelf. I'll be curious to see what you think of it.

    posted 1 month ago. ( send a note )
  • Bibliophile!

    Bibliophile! says

    Yes. All is well. Thank You. Of late I have been reading lots of interesting books. So I am not unhappy!

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
  • terrell67

    terrell67 says

    oh, read nickled and dimed in america

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
  • terrell67

    terrell67 says

    hi,tapbirds....how are you? im puzzled about California ,rejection of gay marriage but the place celebrated hedionism?

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Superrrmilla

    Superrrmilla says

    Hoi Scott :)

    Nope, never been there, but I have heard of it. I think my coworkers know it and the ones who live in Woerden go there occassionally. I have to try it sometimes. Every once in a while there's a "restaurant week" here. You can pick a participating restaurant on the internet and have a three course menu for only 25 euro. All kinds of restaurants participate, but ofcourse the more expensive ones, like the Markies, are most interesting :). So next time it is, I'll check if I can get in there.

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Bibliophile!

    Bibliophile! says

    I get the same pleasure from used bookstores that an alcoholic finds in bars. Both places, though public, make room for feverish solitude and both allow unhealthy cravings to be filled to excess - Art Spiegelman in his introduction to Joseph Moncure March's *The Wild Party*

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Dog Lover

    Dog Lover says

    No no. I wasn't trying to get you to change your vote! I'm voting the same way that you did.

    I was just remarking about my pleasant experience with Willis' writing style. I, too, was/am more than a little ambivalent about Ketcham's tome. It may be the best Madison biography there is but I don't want to experience the "pain" or drudgery of reading it over the holiday. We'll see, though. If the group votes for it, I will read it. Eventually. ~smile~

    DL

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Dog Lover

    Dog Lover says

    Yo Tapbird.

    Saw your comments on the CROAH Madison ballot. I concur.

    Have to admit, though, that I love Willis' writing style. Found several essays by him in the New York Review of Books and was very impressed. I do think that whole Schlesinger "Presidential History" line is history-lite. Still, might be just the kind of reference library that could help me gain an overview of things presidential.

    This is the first CROAH ballot so far that I've not anticipated with excitement. Just cannot understand why the fascinating and critically important Madison is not the subject of many biographies.

    DL

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Sagecoveredhills

    Sagecoveredhills says

    I have skipped around a lot in Partee's book, "The Theology of John Calvin" and haven't completed it. I think he's made a good contribution, but parts of it reads a lot like a dissertation--he explores a lot of various theories before getting around to his own ideas--it's not a dissertation, however. I'm pretty sure Partee's dissertation was the framework for his earlier book titled "Calvin and the Classical Philosophers". Like Francios Wendel's classic, "Calvin: The Origin and Development of his Religious Thought," he uses the 1559 Institues as a framework for Calvin's theology.

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
  • the musicologist

    the musicologist says

    I love Arvo Pärt, but my favorites would probably be Benjamin Britten and Olivier Messiaen.

    posted 2 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Superrrmilla

    Superrrmilla says

    You raise some interesting points as well, on which I would have to think. I do agree with you on the architects and the painters. The "Golden Age" art is not necessarily my favorite, but I can see it is good ( as, imho, there is a difference between something being not your taste and something being not good :) ). I will have to think some more about how and why, in my opinion, the writers differ from the more visual artists. Would be interesting to take the musicians into the perspective as well. And, yes, the design... Rietveld and such, they were remarkable. Thank you for bringing that to my attention :)

    posted 3 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Superrrmilla

    Superrrmilla says

    I'll put it on my reading list :) Looked it up in Wikipedia and the part about cathlic rituals and Japanese tea ceremonies interest me.

    I also came a bit closer to figuring out my exact problem with Dutch literature. It just seems to me the Dutch are not tellers of great stories or epic tales, as if somehow our national character reflects in our writing. We do not have rugged, inspiring nature, nor have rugged inspiring great minds, like the German or the French. We have two philosophers, one of which wasn't actually Dutch and the other one is hardly remembered by the "common people". We are a people of averages. Our national adagium would be "act normal, that's crazy enough", so for us no Joyce or Faulkner.

    Excuses the rant :), there's still plenty good things about the Netherlands, so I am not dissing my country. Just trying to formulate my likes and dislikes, is all.

    posted 3 months ago. ( send a note )
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Displaying 1-20 of 335 notes


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