Autumnal pleasures

I learned from viewing the Wordplay DVD cover at a local library that five million people do the New York Times crossword each week. Wow, I didn't know it was that popular. Today's crossword was very easy, for a Saturday. I solved it by myself, so it was too easy.

Later this afternoon, on our second visit to the library (to announce the DVD case my son borrowed today was only a DVD case), I started compiling some books for me to read: the King County Library System and the Seattle Public Schools District have carefully compiled lists for children around my son's reading level. I pored through Hallie Ephron (Ph.D.)'s 1001 Books for Every Mood, and aggregated these books for my ever-growing to-read list.

The Thurber Carnival
Barney's Version
The Interpreter of Maladies
The God of Small Things
Christ Stopped at Eboli
An American Childhood
The Wind in the Willows, for the boy
The Art of Eating
The Debt of Pleasure - Lanchester
Tender at the Bone
On Food and Cooking
What Einstein Told His Cook
Midnight's Children
White Teeth
The Sot-Weed Factor
One for the Money (Janet Evanovich Mystery)
How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything: Yes, Anything
When Bad Things Happen to good People
The World According to Mr. Rogers
Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods
Stumbling on Happiness
Gravity's Rainbow
Infinite Jest (yeah, right)
Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland
The Moviegoer (I've read this twice, and would read it at least twice more)
Short Guide to a Happy Life
Call it Sleep - Henry Roth
The American Language -- H. L. Mencken
Just So Stories, again for the tot
A Coney Island of the Mnd
On Writing Well
Westward Ha! (Not sure if I've read this, but it's Perelman, so the deja vu would be welcome)
Thank You, Jeeves
Rootabaga Stories
Side Effects - Woody Allen
Heidi - Johanna Spyri, another one for the tot
Alice Adams - Booth Tarkington
David Copperfield
Final Payments - Mary Gordon
Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto
Awaken to Superconsciousness

Discoveries of the day:
Hildegarde of Bingen. The more I learn of her, the more I consider her worth as a potential role model. I will one day immerse myself in some study of Dorothy Day, Simone Weil and St. Hildegarde.

The dog who irritated me to the point where I became intentionally more conscious of animals' sensitivities and sufferings has blessedly been removed to a place where she'd, I imagine, be much happier. Happy dogs don't bark with alarming frequency when left alone for any length of time. Interesting now how when I see a tethered dog yelp and whine waiting for the owner to return I feel for the dog: my irritation is delayed and a distant second. I imagine the dog is probably not used to being without the owner, or is over-stimulated in the presence of strangers and a strange environment as any child left alone might be.