What I saw this week:
I saw, and read, Joseph Roth’s brilliant collection of journalism (as it should be written) about pre world war II Berlin, called What I Saw. The Radeztky March by Joseph Roth is on of the great novels of the 20th century. I had never read his journalism, though. This book reminds you that journalism can be about something, can be beautiful, can be short and still full of integrity, can be restrained and still powerful, can be true.

Here, in a way that in no way reflects the dark, careful beauty of Roth’s book, is what else I saw this week:

I saw a blue jay mobbing a preening red tailed hawk
I saw a lipstick orange smartcar
I saw red when my mother said she just didn’t know if she trusted Obama
I saw three lavender jelly-fish in the hudson river
I saw a couple sitting on their stoop with their shiny calico cat
I saw a fallen green apple in the park
I saw the world from a bicycle for the first time in 20 years

I do miss independent bookstores. But I’m also lucky because I live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and the Barnes and Nobles up here are awfully good ones. Still, a person misses a person’s local little bookstore. And a person often ends up ordering books on line. Especially old out-of-print books. And a person sometimes guiltily orders used books that are still in print, thereby cheating the publisher and, much worse, the author!!! of royalties. SO! Now I have discovered a site at which you can order on line to your heart’s content, assuage your royalty guilt, and actually do some good in the world. It is called betterworld.com. They give part of their profits to literacy programs, they rescue books before they end up as landfill, they have free shipping and they also offer carbon-offset shipping. For example, I just ordered Author, Author by David Lodge and it cost me $3.75, free shipping, another 4 cents for the carbon offset shipping. I recently gave away about 100 books to make room for new ones, which is good because I foresee a lot of them appearing on my doorstep in the near future. Go to betterworld.com!

Midnight’s Children won the 2008 Booker of Bookers Prize.(click here) I was thinking of Midnight’s Children, on eof my most beloved novels, yesterday as I watched Ghandi on TV. Reading it, all those many years ago, was a revelation, not just about India, but about novels. Reading Rushdie for the first time was like reading Dickens for the first time: Look what you can do! I was also happy to see that Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda was on the list, although I think his other Booker winner, The True Adventures of the Kelly Gang, is perhaps even better. Carey was a recent discovery for me, and a thrilling one. The others on the short list were JM Coetzee’s Disgrace, Pat Barker’s The Ghost Road, Nadine Gordimer’s The Conservationist and J G Farrell’s The Siege of Krishnapur. None of which have I read. The shame of it. And the delight. Four new books! Four writers to experience for the first time!

Here is my friend the wonderful writer Ariel Levy on her brand new GREEN ROOF! Don’t you want a GREEN ROOF? I do. It provides excellent insulation and thereby saves energy and money; it helps with storm runoff and so keeps our oceans clean; you now get a tax credit in NYC that covers about 25% of the installation cost. And it’s BEAUTIFUL. This GREEN ROOF was designed and installed by Greensulate(click). I want it!
Warning: Ari not included.

We rented a mini-van and drove up to Hamilton, NY to pick up a Plycraft chair we bought on ebay and we took the lovely scenic Taconic Parkway. Unfortunately, part of the scenery, in among the wildflowers, was a surprising number of state policemen, one of whom surprised us indeed and gave us a ticket for going 82 in a 55mph zone. Hmmph. Here is a picture a disgusted Hector looking back at the absurdly garish flashing lights on this gentleman’s car.

And here is a similar chair. Ours is camel color.

We spent the night at a dog-friendly b&b in Morris, NY. I had never heard of Morris, NY. Why would I have, really? And I never would have gone there if we hadn’t needed a dog-friendly b&b. Buy I’m awfully glad we did. The Butternut Lodge is great. Here is a picture:

We got there after the one restaurant in town was closed, so we went to the ice cream place which also serves hot dogs. And Janet bravely went into the scary tavern and got two beers, so we had hot dogs, beer and delicious soft serve ice cream for dinner. A truly perfect cuisine. They also serve a dollop of vanilla with a milkbone in it for dogs. In the morning we had breakfast at the diner and ate delicious pancakes while men in caps and suspenders discussed feed for cows. I wish every furniture purchase were like this one.