WordsWordsWords

Well, new-ish.

Three years ago, when we moved back to New Mexico and I retired, I did wonder what exactly I was going to do with myself once we got settled in. I spent the first many months unpacking, configuring, buying things we needed, and working with contractors on various projects – plumbing and electric upgrades, solar power installation, and the like.

Somewhere in there, as a language nerd will do, and after hearing some episode of the History of English podcast, I got curious about what Middle English sounded like, so I searched online for a recorded version of the Canterbury Tales, read from the original. What I found opened up my world. And answered the question, “What am I going to do with myself?”

I found Librivox. Simply put, Librivox is a project to turn books in the public domain into audiobooks in the public domain. The way this is accomplished is the amazing part.

Librivox has no budget, and no staff. Volunteers from all over the world coordinate their work through an online forum. There are four roles. The Book Coordinator (BC) mounts a project by starting a topic in the forum. Readers upload their recordings to the site. A prooflistener (PL) reviews every recording for errors and editing gaffes. And the meta coordinator (MC) works behind the scenes to set the project up in the system and to catalog it when it’s finished.

Then, after thousands of hours of work are performed every month by volunteers, we give it all away for free!

It’s hard to describe the passion that was ignited in me for LV. I started out by recording, turning a corner of our walk-in closet into a recording studio (see my catalog page here), but soon turned to PL duties, and then to setting up my own projects as a BC. Now, at any given time, I am involved in some capacity with around 15 projects. I work on something for LV every day, and sometimes spend many hours in a day.

This is all the more surprising given that historically, I tend to get really interested in things, jump in headfirst with excitement, and then burn out before too long. That has never come close to happening with LV.

The joy of being exposed to so many ideas that I might not otherwise come into contact with is constant. Waking up in the morning to see what my PL in India (for example) has posted on my project while I was sleeping is always compelling. And being part of an international community with whom I work and communicate every day has a social aspect that richly adds to my retired life. It’s like having a remote job, but you only have to do what you want, in the amount you want, and when you want!

While I wrote this, I got three notifications from two different projects that there was something I needed to take action on. Better go get busy!

LV was started in 2005 and has so far added almost 20,000 recorded books to its catalog. Around 100 new titles are added every month. Works are available on the LV website, YouTube, and the Internet Archive. Check it out today to see if there is something you might enjoy listening to!

In the Distance
By Hernan Diaz
pub. 2017

“A Book I Liked” is a deliberate understatement.

In the Distance, roughly speaking, is about a man, Håkan, who immigrates to America from Sweden, intending to go to New York. Instead, he ends up in the American West, and the book recounts his adventures and misadventures throughout his life.

That summary is like saying Moby Dick is about a guy and a whale.

Diaz’ imagination in spinning the stories of the extraordinary events in Håkan’s life, the intensity of his depictions of them, and the harsh beauty of his prose easily explain the reason why this, his first novel, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He had to wait until his second novel, Trust, in 2022, to actually win the Pulitzer. That’s a pretty good track record for your first two books.

In the Distance was so compelling that when I say I couldn’t put it down, that’s literal. I had to make myself go to bed the first night, and finished it within 24 hours. This is not a “beach read,” and some of the events are not to be read by the faint of heart, but if you’re looking for a gorgeous gut punch of a book, run, don’t walk, to the nearest library, bookstore, Libby app, or kindle near you.

Many years ago, I began listening to podcasts with headphones to help me go to sleep. It’s always talk, not music I want. Listening to that talk keeps my brain from focusing on whatever’s worrying or obsessing me at the moment.

I started with Stuff You Should Know, when it was just two guys talking and the occasional soothing title jingle. But over the years I have listened to a lot of different ones. Once ads became more common, it was harder to find one that didn’t occasionally have something butt in to the conversation that ruins my almost-sleep or that jars me awake.

About a year and a half ago, I went looking for something targeted at sleep specifically, and found Boring Books For Bedtime, by Sharon Handy. It is now my nightly companion.

Sharon reads from works in the public domain, mostly published on Project Gutenberg. U.S. copyright extends for 95 years, so the fact that they are in the public domain means currently that the books were published in 1928 or earlier. Many she chooses are much older than that. Most episodes are close to an hour long.

Some of the books she selects fall into several different genres—science, nature, cooking, history, philosophy. Plus there are plenty of quirky ones, which tend to be my favorites. I’m especially fond of Fry’s Practical Candy Maker (1884), the 1897 Sears catalog, The Book of Household Management (1861), Symmes Theory of Concentric Spheres (1826), The Railway Travellers Handy Book (1862), and The Manual of Egyptian Archaeology (1895).

While anything can be interesting to the right person, Sharon’s lovely contralto voice—which has gotten deeper over the years, if you listen to older episodes—sets the boring scene each time, washing over you and preparing you to be lulled to sleep: “Good evening, and thank you for joining me for another Boring Books for Bedtime. I hope tonight’s selection provides all the boredom your busy brain needs to quiet down and let you get some sleep. So find a comfortable spot. Adjust your volume. Take a nice, deep breath in….let it out slowly….and off we go….”

Boring Books is 100% listener supported and ad free for everyone. But if you want to show your appreciation for all the hours you don’t lie in the dark wishing you didn’t have insomnia, you can support Sharon on Patreon. Supporters get an additional episode a month, have access to .mp3s of all past episodes, and can find their favorite type in collections by topic. There are also links to versions with no music—the episodes in your podcast feed have a subtle background music, though I didn’t even notice it before I was a member and started listening music-free.  Find Boring Books for Bedtime on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Zzzzzz….

I want to give a shout-out today to my three siblings. These guys really raised a bunch of good kids. I have seven nephews, who range in age from 29 to 47. They are all good guys, good dads (those who have children), and accomplished professionals. They are

–a civilian logistical engineer with the Air Force.
–a former missionary to Ethiopia, now the headmaster of a private school.
–an Iraq war vet, now a civilian intelligence specialist with the Army.
–an Iraq war vet, now the Athletic Director for a public school system.
–a pastor.
–a computer engineer who owns his own company.
–an ER doctor.

And going back a generation, shout-out to my parents. You don’t raise kids like the above without parents who raised you right in the first place.

Respect.

When I started thinking about this topic, which so often happens due to an etymology I’ve seen, I found many expressions and quotes related to time being a thief.

The most common thing that came up was the first line to John Newton’s poem “A New Year’s Thought and Prayer” It reads, “Time, by moments, steals away.” Despite the poem’s unfortunate closing lines – “Let our prayer thy bowels move, Make this year a time of love!” – we can relate to its basic theme, which is that we should take advantage of time as it steals away our hours, days, and years. For a long list of “Time is a thief” quotes, check out this page.

I often come to English etymologies indirectly, through the Spanish etymologies I read on La palabra del día. Today’s word was clepsidra, a water clock that works on the same principle as an hourglass to measure time. Rather than sand running through it, water drips consistently, and the hours are marked on the sides of the bowl or glass. One of the advantages of it is that it can be used, unlike the sundial, when it’s dark. And until the development of the pendulum clock in the 17^th century, it was the most accurate timepiece available.

I had never heard of this device, so I went to see if I could find the English equivalent, which I learned was spelled “clepsydra.”

You can easily see the etymology if you look. “Clep” comes from the Greek “kleptein,” meaning “to steal,” and the “ydra” element comes from Greek “hydor,” water. You’ll recognize those from “kleptomaniac” and the many words related to water, like “hydrate” and “hydroelectricity.”

Here are two examples, a photo from Jeremy Norman’s historyofinformation.com page, that shows the type where one bowl sits in another,

and an illustration clipped from hydrojing.com, a hydraulic engineering consultant firm in Spain. (Though it appears their consulting relates to more modern topics.) In this type, water flows from one vessel set higher into one below it.

I wear an analog watch, which chiefly serves to tell me that I’m almost late, though I’m almost always, almost on time. But time is a thief equally with a pendulum, the running of sand, the dripping of water, or a read-your-texts, count-your-steps modern contraption.

A few days ago, I asked somehow how he was, and he said, “Older than I’ve ever been.” I answered, “Just wait until tomorrow!” Because time steals away.