My friend in Zimbabwe is reading Andy Catlett by Wendell Berry.
This morning’s inbox has these lines in response.
I started on Andy Catlett last night.
Oh, what a friendship for bed time.
Is that whole book set on just one day?
Wendell Berry is truly gifted, to tell a story like that.
I left reading off just where grandma was making a raspberry pie.
I cannot wait for that pie to get out of the oven.
A Living Pencil 
Okay, I’m borrowing that one from the library I like him, I like him not, I like him, I like him not…. (said while picking petals off a daisy) ….
@hiddenart – precisely! Love. Hate. Love. Hate. Why????Finally reading Three Cups of Tea. So far, so good.
You know, I just cleared out the place by the side of my bed which was totally overloaded with books and junk, and replaced my old nightstand with an antique wooden one that was at my dad’s house (they never used it), vacuumed, and set a new nice, small pile of books under it (I plan to get a basket to put them in when I can find one). But it looks so nice! Yes, reading before going to sleep is truly delightful on some nights, especially when I don’t feel particularly sleepy!
@hiddenart – @Lynn in WI – The difference between you excellent ladies and me is that rather than a 1 to 1 ratio of love/hate it is about a seven to one ratio. But Wendell Berry is so iconoclastic that I don’t believe any one person or group would 100% embrace him. I’m wondering what your verdict of Three Cups will be Lynn. That was a book that everyone loves but one I found it ultimately to be disappointing.@LimboLady – Your bedside sounds so inviting. Antique nightstand, small pile of books. Ahhh!
Hooray! Now that I’m in the U.S. I can finally get my hands on Wendell Berry.
I just finished Andy Catlett for the first time. I was charmed by the story, by the hindsight appreciations, but I have to confess [putting armor on] that it felt a little bit like listening to the narrator of the Waltons tell a story… sometimes I think that Berry errs on the side of TOO much of a good thing, if that makes any sense at all… I get ‘excellent-turn-of-phrase fatigue’… nostalgia fatigue… and I’m a total romantic and nostalgic soul… It’s strange, I know. But the things I like the most about the books and his writing are the things that then exhaust and wear on me after a fashion.I’m just sayin’. :)
I love how your friend put it.
Um, Limbo there had a little help getting that thing of beauty by the bedside going– ahem… She’s shown me photos of your bookcases full of books, and i think she may rival your number of books, but in a much smaller space! She needs a whole wall of bookcase like in her dad’s place.
Okay, I truly owe an apology to my friend juleel, because if not for her pushing and prodding and great managerial and supervisory skills, all the junk would still be sitting against my bedroom wall that got cleared.That said, I take umbrage to the comments about the number of books I own. WHO CAN OWN TOO MANY BOOKS??? (…besides my dad, that is )
Just sharing a link to a book I stumbled upon….. it’s about all of Wendell Berry’s writings.http://press.umsystem.edu/fall2001/goodrich.htm
Oh, dear- I suppose I’d better put Andy Catlett on Mr Wonderful’s reading list, since he is related to Catletts in Kentucky…
@hiddenart – Thank you!