Favorite Lines

"Israel was Flint's gunner," said Gray hoarsely.

Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island --
the favorite book of my youth, a volume I still respect and enjoy.

Reading Around

Rereading Byron's "Don Juan": Canto III

Lord Byron’s third canto is a long study in suspense—as we merge with pirate Lambro as he returns to his pirate-isle only to find all think he is dead, his daughter is having party-time, and some young man is wooing that daughter—and a detailed character-study of Lambro (displaced father, displaced authority, displaced pirate).  So much to notice while rereading.

We ought to teach rereading so much more.

Watching The Boats Sail By

Visual joy: 

the view from Ferry Point.

Visual toy:

study aid, truly, to model knockdowns, whale attacks, and skulduggery;

stand-in for the Essex and, soon, for the Hispaniola.