Burning Down North Central Texas!

The East coast is inundated in water from hurricane Irene, and Texas is burning, and burning.

Just a few months ago there was a huge fire out by Possum Kingdom Lake that took a number of very expensive homes and now it is on fire again. As I've told you all summer long it has been hot and dry this year, well, it has now reached epic REALLY HOT AND DRY status all over the state. So far at least 39 homes in the Wise County and Palo Pinto county area have burned and the fire has restarted this afternoon in the 104F temperature and low humidity and increasing winds. Sections of those counties are burning like infernos.

It has been so hot and dry this summer that staying inside has been a blessing, at least if the a/c was working. Reading quietly has been a pleasurable pastime even if watching tv was more pleasurable. I read after going to bed at night all year long, and this has been a good year for reading.

Early in the summer I read either a Texas Parks and Wildlife or Texas Highways ,magazine and there was an article about John Graves. It was so interesting I bought his book, "Goodbye to a River", which was a very interesting book for a native Texan and anyone interested in conservation, for that matter. He took a canoe trip down the Brazos with a dachshund pup in late fall and early winter, which around here can start anytime from October to January. We never know when it will get cold around here. I'm thinking this winter may come sometime in December around Christmas, it has been so durn hot. That book set off a revived interest in Larry McMurtry's books. I'd read Lonesome Dove after the tv series years ago and had picked up a copy at Half Price books once when they were having a sale. After reading "Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen" it just seemed natural to order most of the rest of his books.

"The Sound and The Fury" by William Faulkner stymied this summer's attempt in the first chapter. I'm thinking Cliff notes will be something that might help me get through it. I know it was conquered in the past, because I've read all his books, but the first chapter of that book must have been easier for me then. Maybe youth makes a difference or something. Do they even publish Cliff notes anymore? I've only bought one in my life.

Has anyone read any good books to get us through the winter? It is never too early to stock up.