Do Your Best

I became serious about my writing when I became serious about my reading.

[typowriter]

Reading for School 2

Old books on olds books on old books. I look for an old book of Old English poems, in the old basement of King's College Library: The Exeter Book. Collected with other big, old books. I'll just read my two assigned poems in here, in Krapp and Dobbie's collection of six old books:

Nope, they are written in Old English. Incomprehensible.

I find two other books, in English this time, in Killam Memorial Library & Halifax Public Libraries: The Earliest English Poems & Old English Poetry: An Anthology. Each have different translations of "The Wanderer" & "The Wife's Lament".

A few lines from The Wanderer

"Wyrd(1) is fully fixed." (Stanza 1, Line 5)

(1) Old English word for Fate, a powerful but not quite personified force. It is related to the verb weorthan, meaning roughly "to occur." Its meanings range from a neutral "event" to a prescribed "destiny" to a personified "Fate"; it is useful to think of wyrd as "what happens," usually in a negative sense. In a poem so preoccupied with puzzling over the nature and meaning or wyrd, it seemed appropriate to leave the word untranslated.

—Old English Poetry: An Anthology

"Wierd [sic] is set fast." (Stanza 1, Line 5)

—The Earliest English Poems

A few lines from The Wife's Lament

I make this song of myself, deeply sorrowing, my own life's journey. (Stanza 1, Lines 1-2)

—Old English Poetry: An Anthology

I have wrought these words together out of a wryed existence, the heart's tally... (Stanza 1, Lines 1-3)

—The Earliest English Poems

A definition from A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, Volume X Part II, V to Z — one of 13 books, more than a metre thick

Weird:

(O[ld] E[nglish]) The principle, power, or agency by which events are predetermined; fate, destiny.

The Fates, the three goddesses supposed to determine the course of human life.

That which is destined or fated to happen to a particular person; what one will do or suffer; one's appointed lot or fortune, destiny.

[typowriter]

Reading for School 1

I walked off a Spring Garden bus and into the Central Library and into its elevator to the fourth floor, past the gamers first-person shooting and the oldsters packing up, to their shelf. Beside When My Brother Was An Aztec was Postcolonial Love Poem. I grabbed them both without thought, without knowing one had only four poems and the other had the fifth, secret one.

I checked them out up there and took the elevator down and exited the library as a new bus arrived and I hopped on. I read "When My Brother Was An Aztec" as the ferry hovered in the Halifax terminal. Four refreshing but violent poems and one insane, obtuse poem—the secret, fifth one—"My Brother, My Wound".

In my bag were Killam Memorial Library books Sixty Stories by Donald Barthelme, Poems of Rita Joe, French translations of Emily Dickinson's quatrains and I Place You Into the Fire by Rebecca Thomas. Also, A Very Long Way From Anywhere Else by Ursula K. Le Guin, which I finished on the way to my first class. Usually I dog-ear the pages with good quotes but this slim, fragile copy—the first of this book I've ever seen—seemed to want to be read; not mined.

But, I mean, come on: "We decided that it was no good asking what is the meaning of life because life isn't an answer, life is the question, and your, yourself, are the answer."

[typowriter]

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: Breath of the Wild and a Switch. Oh, baby. The Book Nook is complete.

[typowriter]

The Final Book Nook Advent Calendar – Day 24

Merry Christmas! I'm home.

The final box, brought to me by Chef's Plate, is replete with Indigenous thought and talk and style, writers on writing, poets on poetry, reporters on reporting and playwrights on plays. Here are the ones that stand out:

Firewater: How Alcohol is Killing My People (and Yours) by Harold Johnson

Ojibway Heritage by Basil Johnston

My Conversations with Canadians by Lee Maracle

The Yellow Wind by David Grossman

Rules for the Dance by Mary Oliver

Writings on Writing by May Sarton

What a delightful mix, what an incredible library.

So much to read, so much to say.

I'll leave it at this: thank you books, thank you boxes, thank you my wife, for encouraging me, and thank you Joe, for reading and for writing. 💜

[typowriter]

The Penultimate Book Nook Advent Calendar – Day 23

Every day I've opened an advent calendar box, my cat Nona has chewed the edge of another. There are bits of cardboard and tape all over the Book Nook, where she dribbled them. This penultimate box was one she regularly chewed as I opened another. Now, it's empty. But for two months it held: French novels, East Coast poetry, Ontario essays, American novels and essays and biographies, and Roberto Bolaño's 1666. Will I read it? One day, perhaps.

A few years ago, a dear friend gave me Stalking the Wild Asparagus. What a gift. Since then, I've become attune to the cycles of wild asparagus in the ditches, fence lines, scrubs of Ottawa. I've delighted in steaming, buttering and salting lily buds like green beans, I've enjoyed identifying different fruit and nut trees, and wondered if I'll ever try boiling and boiling and boiling and then eating milkweed. Likely not.

And I've become a fan of John McPhee, a lodestar of a non-fiction author for all those who aspire, who wrote the profile of Euell Gibbons called "A Forager" back in 1968. What a pair of mensch. Long may they enjoy life and be remembered for all they found and shared with us.

[typowriter]

The Book Nook Advent Calendar – Day 22

The hits keep coming: layers of unread classics, bursting with plot and circumstances and choices. So much to read... A student of mine asked if I'd read Coraline. No, but I loved the movie. Was the novel worth it? "Oh yes, definitely yes," she said. I devoured Bear by Marian Engel and when I found a copy of The Honeyman Festival, I sucked it up. One of Ursula Le Guin's favourite novels is Kim, which both intrigues and gives me pause. What will I find in there? And what to say about the wacko novella: Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo?

I read an excerpt from Pedro Páramo in Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose when I was in journalism school. Prose broke down writing to the building blocks—words, sentences, paragraphs—and showcased amazing writing from the famous and the unknown. I liked most of what I read in there, but one stood out: Pedro Páramo. It's haunting and weird and funny and strange and just plain fucking bizarre. Man, I wanna read it right now!

[typowriter]

The Book Nook Advent Calendar – Day 21

ENG BOOKS it said on the side: engineering manuals for my wife's work. Also: notepads, notebooks, old passports, metal ruler, post-its, ergonomic exercises cheat sheet and more. Just a hodgepodge of things, thrown together from the home office. This was clearly one of the last boxes assembled, in a rush, in a mad dash. And one book of mine was in there: Creative Nonfiction by Philip Gerard.

I have no idea who this author is. I believe I bought this at The Book Market on Merivale (freshly resting in peace). I don't think I've ever read it. I dismissively read a few sentences throughout it this morning, thinking to jettison it into the nearest little library as soon as possible. But, instead, I began to read with interest and I put a Halifax Public Libraries sticker in the section about "Archives We Don't Think of As Archives" and left the book on the kitchen counter. It doesn't quite matter where I left it, but if it's out and about in my house, I'm going to read it. At least a bit.

[typowriter]

The Book Nook Advent Calendar – Day 20

I forgot how many comic books I have. They are a mix of wonderful and hilarious, nostalgic and refreshing, bizarre and saucy. Parting gifts, collector's items, library reads turned to bookstore buys—all of them lovely.

If I had to pick one to bring to a desert island, it would be the dark fantasy allegory of immigration: The Arrival by Shaun Tan. What an incredible read. Is it a read if there isn't a single comprehensible word in it? There are strange symbols in a language neither the reader nor the nameless main character recognize. His expressions of worry and delight and explanation and fear are more than enough to make up for the lack of speech bubbles. The curiosity and kindness and stories of strangers he meets are calming and warming and depressing. It is, without a doubt, one of the greatest books I've ever encountered. And it saddens me that some loved ones were unable to read it, because they found its sepia tone too melancholy. Their loss!

[typowriter]

The Book Nook Advent Calendar – Day 19

It's coming together.

Thirty-one books in a compact box. One gem stood out: with a title like In God We Trust: All Others Pay in Cash, you wouldn't think it's a Christmas classic. But it is. It's the basis of Ralphie's classic, desperate quest for a Red Ryder Carbine-action 200-shot Ranger Model Air Rifle: A Christmas Story. Add it to the yule pile, ma.

Some books in here I'm planning to read: A Winter Book by Tove Jansson (having read The True Deceiver with my wife last winter, and The Summer Book in its season before that), Spin Doctors by Nora Loreto (which feels necessary) and Working by Studs Terkel. A dear friend gave me the latter book and said he thought of its opening quite a lot, and I do too: "This book, being about work, is, by its very nature, about violence—to the spirit as well as to the body."

[typowriter]

The Book Nook Advent Calendar – Day 18

Just a box of classics, padded with six or eight copies of The New Yorker. Almost every one of these books bring up a memory: I found Black Beauty in a storage box in my mother's furnace room, The Human Factor was recommended by fellow deal-hunting shoppers as Benjamin Books went out of business last winter, The King in Yellow was discovered through True Detective, The Hashish Man is my second copy because the first was left on a hot car dashboard for weeks and melted/faded, World War Z showed up in my little library, The Essential Rumi was a parting gift from my cousin/great-uncle, Bluebeard is a new copy I've been meaning to reread because I think about the final lines of that book a lot ("Thank you, meat."), and The Conformist is a springtime find from Kestrel Books on West 4th Avenue in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood. It appears to be a special one. Aren't they all?

I have read, front to back, one of these books. Oh, and The Poor Mouth! So: two.

[typowriter]

The Book Nook Advent Calendar – Day 17

One copy of The Left Hand of Darkness. The Dictionary of Imaginary Places. And this time the "papers" label on the was correct: unwritten notebooks, filled and half-filled notebooks, zines, magazines, newspapers, etc. etc. But also: office supplies: a three-hole punch (used once a decade), a stapler, a staple remover, a little box with a ceramic frog on a lily pad inside, an antique ruler, book darts, a tiny statue of Tanjiro, business cards, thumbtacks, book embossers and a little wooden jar from an ancient kid's chemistry set with a thimble of CBD weed in it.

Also found this print from @possibleworldsshop, which now proudly greets readers to the Book Nook. It is right below a sticker of a woman reading on a chair, le penseur statue and a mini-poster of Big Bird reading in a sunflower field with the bold caption READ AND GROW.

[typowriter]

The Book Book Advent Calendar – Day 16

PAPERS read the marker on the SpotClean PetPro vaccuum box. But it turned out to be mostly language books: Le Bescherelle, Le nouveau petit Larousse illustré, Les mots pour traduire, Le petit druide des synonymes, etc. etc. French books have the most interesting titles, like announcing a visiting Lord or Lady.

Les livres de référence en anglais sont parmi ceux que je cherche depuis le 3 novembre. Je veux lire mon Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Roget's Thesaurus, et même le tome de mots bizarres Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words. Je cherche à savoir ce que ça veut dire « embay » (poigné dans une baie) et ça ne me tente pas de chercher sur Google. Le COD ne limite pas la définition aux navires et Google met deux sets de parenthèse pour dire que c'est (souvent le vent) qui « embay » (les navires).

私はゆっくりと日本語を学んでいます 読んでいただきありがとうございます

[typowriter]

The Book Book Advent Calendar – Day 15

Une boîte de taille moyenne, mais de poids pas léger. Rempli de bande dessinées, et quelles bandes ! Vattu, Akira, Dr. McNinja, Watchmen, Stand Still, Stay Silent, etc. Je me demande si j'ai besoin de tout ces livres, en déballant toutes mes boîtes. Mais il y a quelque chose de très spécial dans les pages de Wimbledon Green et La librairie de tous les possibles qui me rappelle que c'est plus fort que moi. Que ce soit une obsession ou une vocation, les livres viennent me chercher. Et je vais chercher les livres.

[typowriter]

The Book Book Advent Calendar – Day 14

Ruthie is visiting from Ottawa, she picked the box to open today and helped me spread its contents around the Book Nook. More Massey Lectures, which Ruth scatter onto various shelves, mimicking my "organization". Kissa by Kissa, one I have on my 2026 list, and The Island Book by @evandahm, which I may revisit this winter.

The Canada Chronicles is a book a dear friend gave me before I headed west for a summer. In the preface I noticed the author's byline read: "Canmore, Alberta." That's where I was going. I tested out hitchhiking from Canmore to Banff, then to Lake Louise, then to Jasper, and to Calgary, Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. I even went into BC and back for a day. It was a wonderful way to see the country and meet good folks. It's mostly good folks out there, and this book confirms that.

[typowriter]

The Book Nook Advent Calendar – Day 13

It was a small box, but a mighty one. Found my girl: A Wizard of Earthsea, The Left Hand of Darkness, tales of all kinds, including The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas and Firelight, in zine forms. Many books I've unboxed lately have been beautiful or special to me: many of Ursula's are both. A few books I've thought, maybe I don't need this anymore. I will only ever accumulate Ursula. I was late to her party, I saw her name a bit here and there. After she died I read a short story called The Rule of Names. Immediately, her incredible writing spoke to me.

I fell in love with Ged and Genly and Shevek, and her small, loving portraits of good people trying their best in impossible situations. The fact that her work is set in far-flung places, in highfalutin philosophy, in system-bending settings doesn't really matter. She makes sci-fi and fantasy into literature because her work is very human. And its central, constant theme, as she put it, is marriage. Can't read enough of Ursula, as I do year after year, slowly dipping into newer works and ever revisiting the old ones. Brava.

[typowriter]

The Book Nook Advent Calendar – Day 11 & Day 12

I missed a day. But it works out. Because the final tally at the start of this advent calendar was 23 boxes. And I thought, "oh, I'll break up one of these bigger ones into two boxes." My wife was going to do that for me. But let's work smarter, not harder.

Donc, dans cette boîte : des bandes dessinées, des encyclopédies, des livres de recettes, des courtes histoires pour enfants et des albums photos. Arthur's Christmas me parle pas mal : c'est un personnage de télé de mon enfance que je ne connais pas comme personnage de livre. J'ai hâte de partager ce bouquin avec une jeune visiteuse cette fin de semaine.

Le Science Encyclopedia, une source d'informations pour projets de science depuis Noël '96 — bein avant l'internet. Aujourd'hui je regardais une photo de ma soeur et moi le jour de Noël '96, c'est un bazaar total. Je suis fixé sur un habit de Nerf Gun. Aucun livre en vue. C'est un beau bouquin, mais est-ce que tout reste exact et vrai? M'en fou.

Et Advent. Ooh là. J'avais essayer de sortir ce beau livre de la biblio à Noël il y a deux ans. Tellement de monde l'avait réservé que je l'ai finalement eu au printemps. C'est si beau que je l'ai acheté pour Elfriede, notre grandmaman autrichienne, qui allait sûrement avoir des histoires à nous raconter en regardant les photos de lebkuchen et de springerle. Elle racontait les meilleures histoires. Je n'ai pas pu lui offrir, car elle est décédée bien avant l'Avent.

Love you, Elfriede.

[typowriter]

The Book Nook Advent Calendar – Day 10

It's funny, but I'm beginning to be tired of this. Perhaps it's other things in my life that are slowing down my enthusiasm. Perhaps it's that I haven't figured out the shelving organization yet, and the unpacking is just making a Book Mess. Perhaps it's that I have too many books and want to get rid of some more. And I look at some of these—beautiful covers and even pieces of art themselves—and wonder if I will ever read them. Or ever read them again.

How to Travel with a Salmon by Umberto Eco was mentioned to me by a dear friend when we were kids. It stood out to him as a hilarious book by an Italian. I read from it to him on a camping trip recently.

A Writer's Notebook cost ¢25 at a fundraiser in the Algonquin College gym about 15 years ago. It is a wonderful book with rare ex libris and inspiring quotes about the writer's life. How the hell could I ever write in it?

Crazy Robots. It's a book that turns into a mask, so you can read out the crazy robots' catchphrases while acting as them. Never met a kid who didn't love it. It's brilliant and weird, in a way that I don't see in kids' books today. Mind, I'm not really looking for kids' books—they just fall into my lap. Like this one.