According to Storygraph, I‘ve been reading this since last December. But you know something? It‘s the kind of book that almost demands slow reading. Not that the pieces are dense or difficult to read. There is just an attitude of slowing down and treasuring the moment throughout. It‘s been a comforting reading experience in a way. I‘ve got 12 more essays to go. I think it will be bittersweet to finish this volume.
“The subtlest change in New York is something people don‘t speak much about but that is in everyone‘s mind. The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers…”
The language here is terrifying, and it‘s incredible that this was written in 1948, so prescient of the possibility of horror. ⬇️
There‘s been a few #weirdwords sprinkled throughout White‘s essays, but a recent one that I never heard before was the phrase “shoe hockeys.” I tried searching the term but it was unproductive. I‘m thinking he‘s either describing skates that you attach to the bottoms of shoes or, as he mentions later in the paragraph, a pair of skates. Anyone else heard this phrase before? Is it a retronym? @dabbe
#weirdwordWednesdays @CBee
“Events carry us rapidly in directions tangential to our true desires…Perhaps success in the future will depend partly on our ability to generate cheap power, but I think it will depend to a greater extent on our ability to resist a technological formula that is sterile…There is more to these rocks than uranium; their is the lichen on the rock, the smell of the fern whose feet are upon the rock, the view from the rock.”
-1956
“I have no sharp taste for acquiring things, but it is not necessary to desire things in order to acquire them. Goods and chattels seek a man out; they find him even though his guard is up. Books and oddities arrive in the mail. Gifts arrive on anniversaries and fête days…Under ordinary circumstances, the only stuff that leaves a home is paper trash and garbage; everything else stays on and digs in.”
#booksandoddities
pickMost of the essays are great. The one about the Summer vacation lake is wonderful. Just a couple seem out of date and not so relevant. Still worthwhile and show how essays should be done.
Starting this one which has been in my TBR pile for a couple of years or more. I've heard he is a great writer of essays, besides his great children's books.
I have written this account in penitence and in grief, as a man who failed to raise his pig.
pickGoodness I am behind on reviews. I finished this ages ago.
White is definitely an excellent essayist so I'm marking this as a pick, but this isn't a book for beginning essay readers.
This may very well be the oldest resident of my shelf to still be unread. It's been there over 10 years, since I had to read three of the essays for school. I'm 100 pages in and so far I'm glad I waited.
Still one of my fav. bookmarks/quotes/life reminders.
Assigning essays to students this fall? Please tell them to cultivate effrontery.
Essays of E. B. White | 
