Farewell and More Books

Several years ago I was searching out a nice, neighborhood Italian restaurant that served true rigatoni noodles, not penne pasta. I remembered one that had catered my niece's wedding, one where she used to work when she still lived in the old neighborhood, dropped by to try a meal, and was hooked. So from that time, for the past several years, I have been dropping by on my way home from work on Saturday nights and ordering take-out for dinner. As is the case with many small businesses in today's economy, they were impacted. But not in a good way. Restaurants have had a tough go of it, and many have closed their doors, but Bascali's forged ahead. Unfortunately the economy finally caught up with them, and today is their final day of business. I'll pick up a final take-out order tonight, and we'll find another place for our weekly no-cook treat, but I always mourn a bit when a small, independent business ends. I think it leaves all of us a bit poorer and a bit more pushed into large, uncomfortable boxes of same-ness.

I'll miss you, Bascali's.

Three more books that influenced me as I was growing up - a bit different than yesterday's group.

I'll start out with The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame because it is a book that I cherish. I can't read the Piper at the Gates of Dawn without tears running down my cheeks. My vision is blurred just at the thought of that chapter and my copy is far from my current seat. I first read it when visiting my adoptive brother in Mexico when I was ten years old. I was enthralled, hooked, totally enamored. I still am.

I started reading science fiction in Middle School, so the middle to late 1960's. One book that I picked up and have read again and again is Robert A Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. Wow. An amazing book. I have read most of what he wrote, along with Arthur C Clarke, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, and many others. For over twenty years I buried myself in science fiction. It is still one of the genres of literature that I most love. And yes, I do consider it literature, not just telling stories or novelization.

The final book for today is Gone With the Wind. The only book by a rather radical and short Atlanta author who handed her typewritten novel to a publisher on a dare, this single novel has done more to bring the Old South through to the sensibilities of those who have never lived there than many more serious books. Lovingly crafted, beautifully characterized, and of course fabulously filmed, it quickly shot to the top of the bestseller's list and won the Pulitzer Prize three years after publication. I discovered GWTW when I was sidelined because of a broken arm. My Dad bought it for me, thinking that a book of that size would keep me quiet for a couple of weeks. It kept me quiet for four days. Not too bad, actually.