Repost from Life In the Left-Hand Lane

This is a repost from one of my other blogs, Life in the Left-Hand Lane (http://life-in-the-lelft-hand-lane.blogspot.com), dated December 29, 2012:

I love to read. Always have. I blame my parents, in a good way. Between bedtime stories, watching both Mom and Dad reading a wide variety of books in their spare time, and receiving books for birthdays, Christmases, and just because, I learned that books were to be explored and enjoyed. A person can learn a lot from books.

It was on one website that I frequent that I learned about another cool site called Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com. Maybe you've heard of it. Or not. But on Goodreads, a reader can keep track of books she or he has read, is currently reading, wants to read (oops, must add the Narnia series!), learn about what others are reading, what others feel are must reads and what can be passed on. One can connect with friends on the site and get emails when books (and comments on these books) are added to friends' lists.

At the moment, I'm reading several books, a habit I got into as a kid during summer vacation. Getting home after the last day of school, I'd grab a stack of five books, read the first chapter of the first book, stick in on the bottom of the stack, read the next book's first chapter, then the next book...You get the idea. When I'd finish one book, it would go back on the bookshelf, another stuck into its place, and the reading would go on. By mid-summer, I might be on chapter one in one book, chapter ten in another, five in the third...Drove my mother crazy.

"How do you keep all the stories separate?" she'd ask. Just do, I'd tell her. She'd wander off, sighing, happy, I'm sure, that at least I was reading.

"I wouldn't worry about it," my grandmother told her when she relayed it during one of Grandma's visits. "I used to that all the time." Then, as an afterthought, she added, "I still do." If it was good enough for Grandma...

Two of the books I'm currently working on are Seasons of Real Florida, by Jeff Klinkenberg, and Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, by Anna Quindlen. Both are interesting reads, similar in some ways, way different in other aspects.

Klinkenberg's Seasons..., as with his other books, is a collection of his columns first published in the Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times). He introduces the reader to all sorts of interesting characters and Florida locales. His writing makes the reader think that Klink has the perfect job: wander the state, meet cool people, see cool places, and then write about them. Jeff, if you ever decide to retire, please put in a good word for me at the Times!

Quindlen's Lots of Candles... is also a collection of short essays. (She wrote for the New York Times for several years; several of her non-fiction books are collections of some of these essays.) Her essays tend toward her observations on life.

In one of the essays in Lots of Candles..., she mentions being a control freak, to the point of having a local anesthetic when having a hysterectomy. The surgeon, knowing a control freak when she saw one, told Quindlen that she would not be allowed to talk while the surgery was going on. I really had to laugh while reading Quinlen's description of being a control freak, as I've been there. I, too, tend to be a bit of a control freak, as well as a bit of a slob.

An aside: When Paul was alive, he played Felix Unger to my Oscar Madison; we used to joke that if anyone ever did a remake of The Odd Couple using a married couple, we'd be perfect. While I'm not enough of a slob to be on an episode of Hoarders, it's only because I am a control freak. And maybe the two apparent opposites feed into each other: I can never keep my home as neat as my mom used to, or as neat as I'd love to, so why bother? But then the control-freak-ness kicks in and...

There have been times when I've been in my friend Kevin's cab and told him that I wanted to go somewhere, then proceeded to tell him exactly how to get there. Kev will usually give me a look and ask who I think is doing the driving. If I mention wanting to be in control, he'll tell me that I'm simply neurotic. Nothing like having someone know you too well...

Kevin reads a lot, too; over the years, I've noticed numerous books in his cab. (Cab driving does give one down time between calls.) He's recommended several books, and I've told him about several, even handing him a copy of Elie Wiesel's Night, a book he devoured in a day or two before passing it on. (It was an extra copy and I'd told him to pass it along.)

Paul was a reader, too, liking a variety of books from Tom Clancy and mysteries to short stories. But there were several times when I'd buy a book for myself, put it on the table, then not be able to find it later. "Oh, I started reading it," Paul would say. "You really need to read this: it's great!"

We'd discuss books, what we were reading, what stood out in the book, what inspired us for a variety of reasons...

It's a rainy Saturday, the last weekend in the out-going year. I intend to do some house-cleaning (it's that control-freak thing), but I also intend to get royally lost in a couple of books. Will I read about more quirky Floridians? More Quindlen musings? AWOL on the Appalachian Trail on my Kindle? Who knows...maybe all three. It'll drive Mom nuts, but at least she'll take comfort knowing I'm reading!

Jeff Klinkenberg

Jeff Klinkenberg has the perfect job for a writer, or, rather, a writer interested in everything Florida. By this, I mean that if a Florida writer loves seeing parts of Florida that most of us don't get a chance to see on a daily basis, loves meeting every-day-people who make their home within the confines of this strangely quirky state, loves to read books based in Florida, and want to write about all of the above, Jeff has the perfect job.

I first read Jeff's writings in the Tampa Bay Times when it was still the St. Petersburg Times. His Sunday columns describing anything and anyone from the ends of the Florida Keys to the northwest corner of the panhandle were - are - wonderfully written pieces on the nuances of whatever or whoever he's writing about.

Lately, I've been working my way through Seasons of Real Florida, one of his books where many of his previous columns eventually land. It isn't the first book of his that I've wandered into. The first time I'd picked up one of Jeff's books was while taking my first grad level class at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Gary Mormino, recently retired, was one of USFSP's Florida Studies' founders, along with Ray Arsenault. That first grad class with Gary was the History of Modern Florida, a title my sons found amusing, to say the least.

"History? Modern?"

No matter, I explained. If it happened yesterday, it's history.

At one point, Gary asked the class to get hold of at least one of Klinkenberg's books, spend a good part of the week reading it, then letting the class know the following week what we thought. Gary even managed to hand out copies of Jeff's books so that students wouldn't have to track down copies.

"So, what did you think?" Gary wanted to know the following week. We were all amazed, amused, and fairly entertained by Jeff's writing. I'd read through Dispatches from the Land of Flowers. One of the first essay, titled "Good Times at the Desert Inn," begins with an order: "You got to have some of my chili!" The Desert Inn is located in YeeHaw Junction, or was when the article was first published in November 1994. Apparently, one could "spoon your chili,...munch your frog legs...(and) gaze in wonder at Beverly's rattlesnake skins..." (p. 17). It gets more interesting from there. After all, a state that can boast the likes of Miami, Orlando (with Disney World, et al), Tampa, and YeeHaw Junction, with its interesting people, must have something to it.

Another article in Dispatches... ("The last wild man"), is about Loren G. "Totch" Brown, an "Everglades folk hero and former prison inmate." Gary Mormino had his "History of Modern Florida" class read Totch's book; "The last wild man" added an extra layer to Totch's story.

Back to Seasons of Real Florida, the book that I'm finishing reading, Jeff mentioned other Florida characters you'll seldom read about in the history books: There's a clip on Clyde Butcher (Florida's answer to Ansel Adams), Ybor City's "Last Fish Monger" (who gave a recently murdered mobster's Christmas fish to a widow), and one on the "Black Seminoles."

In other words, if you want to read what Florida is like, beyond the big cities, pick up a book by Jeff Klinkenberg, or grab a Sunday copy of the Tampa Bay Times to see what he's writing about.

And Jeff, I have only one request: If you ever decide to retire, let me know. I want your job!

Read more at: Seasons of Real Florida by Jeff Klinkenberg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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