Autumn meanderings

Ah, there's a chill coming through my office window. Autumn is approaching, which is wonderful news. I was out of town last week - Sandbanks Provincial Park, to be specific, where the sunsets are out of this world (see photo) - with my lovely companion, who loves the sun as if its ... well, her son. Me, I tolerate the sun and heat, but I don't necessarily seek it out. It's ok when it finds me, but only on a temporary basis. Give me cooler, long-sleeve temperatures any day.

But the few days out of the city, away from the smog and the general stresses of work and life, were a wonderful tonic. I had hoped to get quite a bit of reading done, but only partially succeeded. I mostly read in snippets: a few Mavis Gallant stories, a wonderful Orhan Pamuk story in the New Yorker, as well as a few other magazine articles. I also needed something for the beach, so I brought up an Elmore Leonard novel, 52 Pick-Up. I can see why Leonard is a darling of other writers: his prose is snappy, his narrative sense keen, and his characters (usually) original. The novel ends rather abruptly - as well as mildly predictable - but it was still a fun read.

Now I'm on to Peggy Atwood's Oryx and Crake, in anticipation of her new novel Year of the Flood, where I'm high-up on the holds list at the Toronto Public Library. I'm 50 pages in, and struggling a mite. I'm not a big fan of science fiction, although Atwood calls her work "speculative fiction." But a close friend of mine swears that the book is wonderful, and that one needs to read it whole to fully "get" what she's doing, so I will persevere. Although I reminded said friend today over gchat that we don't seem to have a similar literary sensibility.

Oh, and good news for those interested: I found a secondhand copy of Bellow's Adventures of Augie March that I'd been seeking. I bought a companion for it at the same time: Philip Roth's Zuckerman Unbound. Yes, I have too much to read. And yet I still haven't decided what I should bring with me to Argentina. Borges seems a little too heavy for a trip. I'm of course open to suggestion.

randomness

A few things rattling in my brain this evening:

- I forgot how different camping is in the US versus Canada. I spent many summers in my youth in a Coleman trailer in the wonderful United States of America - living in Montreal, the folks confined our travels to the eastern seaboard, primarily Maine (which I'd love to visit again) - but have camped almost exclusively in the last 10 years (when I rediscovered the great outdoors) in Ontario. I had an extra-long long weekend this past weekend camping in upstate NY, at Letchworth State Park. It was a spontaneous trip planned on the fly, and was largely quite wonderful. It helps that I have a thing for running water and water falls. Yet, spoiling the experience was some terribly unruly campers from NY who were intent on speaking very loudly at midnight ("quiet time" was supposedly 10 pm), hitting the car with a soccer ball, and walking through our site to visit the loo. I don't remember experiencing the same type of camper in Ontario's Provincial Parks. More important, was I loud and obnoxious when we camped in the Adirondacks when I was a kid?

- It's fun to read a Spenser novel by Robert Parker after so many years. Ideal campsite reading. (For those curious, it was Looking for Rachel Wallace. I have the 1980 Dell paperback if someone wishes to borrow it. A fun read.) I brought Jane Austen's Emma as well, but didn't get around to breaking the spine. (Well, I broke the spine when I was supposed to read it in my Introduction to the Novel class during my first-year undergrad, but never got past page 30 or so. I'm determined to finish all the books in my various syllabuses from years past.) I think it might be next in the queue, particularly since I don't have any books waiting for me at the TPL. I also bought Leonard Michaels' The Collected Stories, which I'll dip into over the next few weeks.

- Hiking really is a great stress reliever for me. File that under "note to self."

- Hooray for Argentina! I booked an Oct. flight to Buenos Aires on Thurs. Nice to have some travel to look forward to.

- You have to love the post-camping shower.