October Trails

Leadville, Colorado

This month, I've been on the move.

Days #131-135: The 'rents visit, and we zoom around the Berkshires, Historic Deerfield, Non-Historic Greenfield, and the top of Mt. Holyoke.

Days #137-141: A weekend in the Colorado Rockies, touring Frisco, Leadville, Copper Canyon and Vail.  Plane reading: Ojos que no ven, a quick read by Spanish novelist J.Á. González Sainz, and Helen Graham's excellent The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction.

Day #142: I find out that Javier Cercas' book Anatomía de un instante has won the Spanish National Narrative Prize, and the delight that I have actually already read this book washes over me.

Day #144-146: Attended the mouthful of acronym AILCFH conference in Austin, Texas, and presented a paper on one of Mercè Rodoreda's lesser-known short stories, "Nit i boira."  So far in my academic career, my conference presentations have generally been the equivalent of an avant-garde jazz duo playing a Ramada Inn: sparse attendance, occasionally with people who have clearly wandered into the wrong room.  My presentation in Austin was, happily, the opposite: audience members numbering in the 20s (!), rapt attention, and a lively, relevant and insightful discussion.  Also managed to sneak in a trip to Ironworks barbeque, where I stuffed myself to the gills.

Plane reading: Miguel de Castillo's Child of Our Time, a book my Dad found referenced in a 1950s issue of the New Yorker that just happens to dovetail with my current research.  Synchronicity.

Day #148: The SJBlog has made the blog roundup of Books on Spain!  New visitors will certainly be confused and befuddled by the seeming randomness of the timing and content of SJBlog posts.  For those just joining us: I'm on sabbatical.  That's why I have so much more time to read things, watch movies and go places.  Usually mid-October finds me buried under midterm essays trying to eek out a few minutes to sit on the couch and watch "Mad Men."