Member: chrisharpe

It's not my fox, just a pic I pulled from the net. I get several questions about this maybe I should leave an explanation on my profile.

The cornish group is still around, just not very active. you wrote "Scillies - would that count? I'm guessing it's legally Cornwall... " I thought the Scillies were independant teritories but a quick check of wiki shows that they are a seperte unitary authority (county) within the UK - but close enough to count by my reckoning.

Enjoy your camping, I hope you get decent weather! and the reading of course.

'fox

posted by reading_fox at 9:20 am (EST) on Aug 10, 2009

Thank you for the note! I'm glad you found something to like in my meager library. I don't know why no one reads Powys. I find I sometimes gravitate to books just because they're unpopular, they seem more precious somehow. I looked at your Favorites list and see you listed Under Milk Wood. Dylan Thomas is one of my favorite poets. And anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. You've got a great list of favorite authors too. Regards,
-tMG

posted by themagiciansgirl at 10:16 pm (EST) on Jul 25, 2009

Welcome back, Chris! I'm taking two classes and have several assignments coming due this weekend, so my time on LT will be short for a bit. I have several books waiting for my polar read, but it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to do much with them. At least I enjoyed reading the summaries of all the suggested titles. Oh, well...another time.

I haven't done much birding other than New England and Southern California and a bit in England (Norfolk & Dorset). I'd love to take my boys to Costa Rica - another place is Trinidad & Tobago. I bet they have great slugs in Costa Rica. Someday! I just hope it's before they're grown and gone >_<

Marilyn

posted by muddy21 at 9:12 pm (EST) on Jul 23, 2009

Hi Chris,
Sorry for my lack of response. I haven't been on LT much lately - I've been tied up with some courses I'm taking & end of the school year at work. The polar regions kind of slipped away from me. I'll go browse through the threads and see where you're at with it and whether there's anything I can help with at this late date.

posted by muddy21 at 9:27 pm (EST) on Jun 23, 2009

We sure have in common some less common books, interesting

posted by iphigenie at 5:35 pm (EST) on May 5, 2009

I just made two recommendations for The Outsider before realising you'd made the same two recommendations before me - what's that they say about great minds?
Deborah

posted by DLSmithies at 4:55 am (EST) on Apr 29, 2009

I grew up there. Well almost. My parents live in Somerset, perhaps an hour north of Plymouth. I've done a lot of walking around there and in Devon, though only a few trips into Cornwall proper. I love the compacted nature of the countryside where it seems that every corner has something new. Although I enjoy the bigger hills of th Peaks and Lakes, it isn't quite the same.

Plymouth isn't too bad a connection from Manchester, there's a direct train which takes 5 hours or so. It's 8 all the way to Penzance. Just about faster. However if I wanted to get to the other coast it would be about as long again!

posted by reading_fox at 11:28 am (EST) on Apr 1, 2009

Oh, I had forgotten that you would probably read him in the original Spanish...

posted by avaland at 6:49 am (EST) on Mar 27, 2009

Interesting Chris. There is a lot of early American literature that provides a fascinating look at the European conception of nature and landscape. I had a friend in graduate school who did some work along those lines via 19th century American literature. Have you perchance read PrairyErth (A Deep Map): An Epic History of the Tallgrass Prairie Country?

posted by urania1 at 1:31 am (EST) on Mar 25, 2009

Hi Chris,

It is interesting that you too found Paradise Found: Nature in America at the Time of Discovery intriguing. It is on my top two list.

posted by urania1 at 4:55 pm (EST) on Mar 24, 2009

Hello again

No worries, I have another taker so it's on its way to Canada. I'll let you know if I end up with any oither spare Bolanos!

Char

posted by charbutton at 2:57 pm (EST) on Mar 20, 2009

Hi Chris

I have a spare copy of The Savage Detectives to give away and avaland suggested that you might want it as Bolano's are expensive in your part of the world.

Leave a message on my profile if you want to claim it!

Charlotte

posted by charbutton at 2:43 pm (EST) on Mar 20, 2009

I was glad to get the invite. I only joined the group after your note ... didn't mean to imply I had done the posts in advance of your note.

Strange coincidence ... Parrot Without a Name was one of the first narrative natural history type books I read when I started birding. Dr. Angelo Capparella did a program for our local Audubon on discovering the Scarlet-banded barbet in Peru. In discussing other some of his other expeditions after the program, he mentioned Don Stap's book. It sounded interesting, I found it at the library, and it was (even if Dr. Capparella didn't have much of a role in it).

Anyway, this spring I hope to identify 100 birds by ear ... and have been studying my recordings and making some notes to myself. I well below-average at birding by ear and thought maybe tackling my deficiency head-on would add some zing to this year's migration. I figured the Stap and Kroodsma books would give me some added motivation although the Kroodsma book looks pretty daunting based on its size and all the sonograms!

posted by tracyfox at 4:32 pm (EST) on Feb 12, 2009

Hey, Chris. Thanks for the compliments. I don't get the whole "friend" business at LibThing. Of course I know what a friend is, but don't really understand how it works systemically. Does this mean you can poke around in my tax records, or show up at the front door on Thanksgiving?

I was thinking maybe whenever I add books, it notifies others. Ah--Maybe it's that you can see when I've posted in other threads without having to find which groups I'm affiliated with or something.

Anyway welcome to my privileged few!

-- Gerry

posted by gscottmoore at 10:14 am (EST) on Feb 5, 2009

Hi Chris, Thanks for the return compliment. I like expanding my reading horizons, so I love the concept of virtually dipping into your library.

posted by merry10 at 2:58 pm (EST) on Jan 15, 2009

I didn't know Robert Service was born in England, either!

posted by nohrt4me at 9:48 am (EST) on Dec 7, 2008

Thank you for the recommendation of "the Selfish Giant" by Oscar Wilde. I already read it during my undergrad years. I liked it and was fascinated by Oscar Wilde's personal life as well.

posted by missshey at 11:16 pm (EST) on Sep 18, 2008

I just got your recommendation, and The Scarlet Letter is certainly one of my all time favorites, even wrote about it in college! Thank you for reminding me to add it!

posted by Gypsysoul_ at 12:54 pm (EST) on Jul 25, 2008

Hi Chris: I just now finished reading your profile on Borderland Tours, checked out the photos and see what a privilege it would be to accompany you. I've briefly crossed paths with Rick Taylor a couple of times here in Arizona and, not surprisingly, have his book. We live close to Madera Canyon and often go there. Recently, I observed two elf owls mating when I happened by their preferred location at dusk. And when I was up there a couple of mornings ago I saw my first-time-this-year blue grosbeaks, varied buntings, and sulphur-bellied flycatchers.

My husband is not a birder, altho' he's been a very good sport and enjoys being out and about as much as I do. Since I started birding the late 80s we've been to Costa Rica, Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, Venezuela, South Africa, and of course Mexico (since we now live right next door). These trips have been of a more general appreciative-of-nature experience, since I've never been with a group. I've rarely encountered other birders (except here in Arizona and in Mexico, in the mountains east of Mazatlan) and my lists aren't very impressive. For instance, while in Venezuela, we didn't rent a car and had quite limited exposure to the country - only the Pico Humbolt Trail (we stayed at La Casona de Tabay - the only guests there) and four days in the llanos in the company of French tourists who were primarily interested in fishing and anacondas. Not that piranha, peacock bass, caimans, capybaras, and various other flora and fauna of the llano weren't interesting. They most certainly were. And I did get to see hoatzin, flocks of scarlet ibis and many other avian wonders. We stayed at a basic fishing camp near Bruzual and slept in hammocks. Given the cramped quarters, I arranged to have my hammock hung outdoors in the yard - a much more pleasant set-up. On the way back to Merida we drove right on by the cock-of-the-rock territory without stopping. My favorite all-too-brief venue was a shade-grown coffee plantation (can't recall where) - tanager heaven.

posted by tropics at 2:33 pm (EST) on Jun 7, 2008

I'm always up for recommendations of any sort, 'new' country or not. In terms of my challenge I only have Ecuador and Suriname to 'visit'. I have Jorge Icaza's 'Huaspinga' winging its way via bookmooch, which just leaves Suriname. I have found lots of Dutch Surinamese writers, but nothing translated into English. Do you know of anything?

posted by depressaholic at 12:12 pm (EST) on Apr 22, 2008

I wish you much happiness with Proust - really reading any of the translations is worthwhile and delightful and will fill up your life - lucky you!

Elizabeth or enevada

posted by enevada at 9:15 am (EST) on Dec 1, 2007

Hi Chris, you gave I. Compton-Burnett's Mother and Son two and a half stars?! What don't you like about it? I thought it was quite brilliant and should deserve 4 stars at least. :)

posted by hansel714 at 7:46 pm (EST) on Nov 26, 2007