The question becomes:  do you treasure flesh-and-blood books?  Yes, we have gone to e-mail, but real letters that once were will forever hold their place in my heart.  We are holding a bit of the person that wrote that letter - and so often the letter divulged secrets, intimacies, personal thoughts that one would certainly not trust to e-mail.  There is a similar feel to holding a book, turning the pages, turning back, looking as we do at the author’s photo with disbelief at time - could this person have written such a good book? sort of thing - that does not transpose into the small version of an old-fashioned child’s Etch-a-Sketch.  Plastic is plastic.  As for travel, I never never read on a trip - as how could I make the most of every moment if I did.  I want to meet people, see new or old places anew, gather the memories around me.  I don’t need to carry a pice of plastic.

But if you do like it, the library will provide you with Kindle books so you don’t have to buy them.  They are very accommodating and very up-to-date.  I can get the latest in movies on DVD from them in 2 days if not instantly — everything is FREE.  Somehow though, LR, you of all people would find a totally different feeling inside by reading a book in this new way.  There is much more to good books held in the hand, turning pages, than just reading.  It is an experience, a getting away often to another world - and emotion of the real book itself is a part of this.

DO look though — why not?  We must be up on the latest things — and we must try to truly make a judgment.  I already have.  I will wait to hear your words.  Joan

Albert Camus wrote:  I envision Paradise to be a kind of library.  His quotation captures our own dreams, for books - real honest-to-God books that have pages with paper textures to feel as you turn the page -  - books that serve to entice and then invite the reader to come in — books, real books, are treasures.

As one who reads anything of nature, of travel, so many of the books I choose are the larger, coffee table books.  Last night, after tempting me for a week, I opened Tui de Roy’s ( of Galapagos fame) stunning Albatross.  Spread across one page or more were photos of these birds in their courtship dance on remote islands in the world, telling more in pictures of the monogomous relationship of these giants of the bird world that lasts for 60 or more years.  The photos alone drew me to the place; the words spread out with white spaces around them, setting them off.  I was transported to another world for several hours.

Could a Kindle of this book even be a consideration?  Never.  Will a piece of plastic that surrounds reading a Kindle book ever be considered a "treasure"?  No way.  Books as we know them often become friends, "keepers" on our book shelves - with just a look at their spine a reminder of what lay within.  Memories, keepsakes, treasures — these are the special things within us.  Books are part of them all.  Joan

I have a feeling that - on your yacht - the world is your oyster - and why shouldn’t it be?  You and your husband have given what has been - in effect - your years of working life building an agency that became a world-wide name.  In our competitive world, that is far from easy.  Now it is time to solely enjoy a beautiful later life in the most beautiful of fashions.  It is a treat for us to see this world, and imagine your life on the sea.  Thanks for sharing and - for a moment - making us feel part of it all.  Joan 

Click here: National Geographic Photographer Meets Deadly Leopard Seal | Gizmodo Australia - LR - this is the most amazing thing that came to me today.

 

this

Sheer perfection, Lauriate!  The rest of us might as well close up shop!

Before I had finished reading the first page of this piece that is delight after delight, I found myself humming "It’s nice to have a man around the house" … and by the end, well, I found myself falling in love with Jason.  I know that is "not done", but that smiling face - that face that seems to tell us that no matter what the trivial disasters that might strike in cooking OR in life, he would be able to make light of it.  (And Jason, IF I am wrong, please don’t tell me as I like to dream!)

And, Jason, just like your little dog, Hamlet, I believe I would not like you to go out either.  Ever!!!

By the way, I have ordered the book.  But, Julia, is there a way I don’t yet know to "order the man"????  Lucky you!  And an absolutely super "read"!!!  Joan

Galen Rowell’s climbing life (he was very small) and his photography is out of this world.  After his plane crashed, killing himself and his wife - who I also knew - died  (Barbara Cushman Rowell was the first woman to pilot a plane the length of both sides of South America ALONE and his written her own book about that story), I was in touch with his children as I had photos I had taken in remote places of him taking photos for his books - they wrote they were not interested.  So I have them to myself.  A library near you should have some of his books - some photos taken in remote Canada by the way.  I HAVE written about Rowell in print and perhaps on this site or others.

LR - they were in my home library as well.  Still love The Little Prince in fact!!

Looking back now, in the toddler years, that - beside the fairy tales - it was The Little Engine That Could that had the most lasting influence on me.  "I think I can, I think I can" as the engine chugged ahead seemed imprinted in me - and yes, I did find "I could" throughout my life.

Ferdinand the Bull was not only a lovely story but the orginial was so beautifully illustrate in black and white.  The Spanish cork trees had actual corks hanging from them which we believed is how they came.  Is it any wonder that my love of fine wine might have come in the beginning from seeking those corks?? 

Elsie Dinsmore was a treasure from my mother’s childhood, telling of a little girl living with her grandfather at Roselands, the family plantation.  She was sweet, good, religious and moral - seemingly faultless.  A girl to strive to be like to a little girl.  Needless to say, I found early on that she was to have no equal.  Elsie - as we say now - obviously lived on another planet!!!

Like others who have written, we couldn’t stop reading, almost devouring books.  And, perhaps the quotation of Albert Camus remains the one that stays with me:  "I envision Paradise to be a kind of library".

LR — All species of penguin cluster in their own colonies.  There is never helicopter viewing of colonies, of course.  But the ship is frozen in in the frozen ocean far from ice shelves and land. Photos taken from above in isolated situations like this are quite valuable as no news team can get close so there is only the passengers — but in this case, you have a NOVA crew that happens to also be filming The Frozen Planet on board.  . so footage is quite desirable.  This is a mammoth ice breaker, not a tourist vessel that one normally would travel on - so it can’t be squashed.  A friend wrote me and said that this would be my ideal situation.  I love to interview and he envisioned me able to have plenty of time to talk to researchers and travellers who have roamed the globe.  Probably some of the most interesting people on Earth may be on this ship.  How good would that be??  I remember the top of Greenland — the only other time this ship was caught.  There was a wait but the atomic icebreaker of the Russian fleet came ( it was only a few days away coming from North Pole) to break this ship out.  Truly, no one of the passengers is in a hurry to get out of a unique situation like this.  But I loved the using of the photo of my own trip for a visual.  We weren’t stuck, but no one would know that.  They will be out soon - too soon.  My Antarctic friends are saying "how lucky they are".  That is how we think of this.  Joan

LR - with the "lady" on the right looking tipsy, disheveled, and perfectly sheepish - it is obvious what has happened.  . at least to me who knows about such things.

Talking about Galen Rowell and my photo - today my icebreaker is currently trapped by ice in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea and they are using my 1993 photo (one in red) with the story — so you get to see me at a distance.  WE were not stuck then - though we had rammed the ice to be able to get off.  While this story is exciting, it will cut their trip to nothing as the icebreaker has to pick up another group rather quickly.  Below.  Joan

Click here: Antarctica: Penguin cruise tourists trapped in sea ice | World news | The Observer

My dear Agatha, did you just have another roll in the hay with my husband??

Well — now I will no longer have to worry as now I have the words for my tombstone, thanks to LR who manages to think of everything. 

If you want ever to talk about business - which had to have been in your past — I have advanced degrees in Business Administration and let’s just say "I am knowledgable."

I have always said "When I start to slow down, just shoot me?" and I mean it.  We need the stirrings of our brain, we need to think of others far beyond ourselves, and though I feel like a very spring chicken, I suppose I am not.  I am not one to languish, not one to let the world pass me by, not one to not feel all the gentle breezes that have the scent of early spring somehow.  And neither are you.  It is so easy for me to know you.  The question then becomes: do you want the longest life possible or the best life possible.  Too separate choices and easy to choose I think.  You don’t have to respond to me about any of this, LR, as this was just in answer to a question posed.  Look or don’t look - like or not — this is a portion of what makes each of my days so glorious.  Connections from afar, to afar, questioning, learning, keeps me alive - and hopefully able to carry on any or all conversations and add something to them. 

As to Venice, well … what better place to have a conversation.  Isn’t that right?  Joan