Living in More Than One World

Recently I was interviewed by the American University alumni website for a feature in which I and several other AU alumni librarians gave our summer book recommendations. Preparing for the interview was a good exercise in thinking about the pleasures and rewards of reading, and its relationship to life as a whole. This, of course, is the season of summer book lists, which I also blogged about last year. NPR has a major section of book recommendations, 2010 Summer Books. The Los Angeles Times’ Jacket Copy blog also has a considerable summer books section, featuring Q&As with a variety of authors and editors on their summer reading. In the UK, The Guardian’s summer books page is particularly intriguing, with annotated suggestions from many top writers, including AS Byatt, Jonathan Franzen, David Lodge, David Hare, Margaret Drabble, Ian Rankin, Annie Proulx and Tom Stoppard. The Telegraph has a similar list, The Best Books Under the Sun, with some of the same people, but also Alexander McCall Smith, Tracy Chevalier and others. For a change of pace, check out Fortune’s The CEO Summer Reading List. Top executives were polled on their reading plans this season. While some will be reading business titles, others plan to read fiction, or books about politics, food and other subjects. On a similar note, The Boston Globe has a photo gallery of CEO summer reading lists, starting with the choices of Mass. Governor Deval Patrick. Summer book sections have been around for years, but have become much more elaborate in the online era. At the same time, some of the edge and novelty may have been diminished since so many websites and online booksellers concentrate heavily on lists and recommendations. But let’s hope that summer reading lists (and summer reading) never go out of fashion.

When I heard that two-time Pulitzer Prize winner W.S. Merwin had been named the new Poet Laureate by the Library of Congress, I thought of our shared roots in Scranton, Pa. I was born and raised there and Merwin lived in the city from ages 9-14. His connection was covered by the local media, including the Times-Tribune and neighboring Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre.  Last year I blogged about the city’s transformation, and I returned for the first time in a year and a half two months ago, when I was one of the featured authors for the inaugural event Jewish Authors of Northeastern Pennsylvania. On my final day in town I walked through the reshaped courthouse square area, and saw the new Piazza dell’Arte sculpture paying tribute to Merwin and others from the worlds of the arts and humanities with ties to Lackawanna County.
At the author event I discussed my book, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life. There is also an important Scranton connection for Drucker. Forty six years earlier, in May 1964, he delivered the commencement address for the University of Scranton, within walking distance of my event, at the Jewish Community Center. At the time, he was 54 and a longstanding bestselling author. I was 12, living a short distance from where he spoke, and unaware of who he was. Part of my talk at the event was about how our lives intersected years later.
As for Merwin, he describes his changed, more positive feelings for Scranton in this 2008 Fresh Air interview. The Times-Tribune story says took part in a poetry series in the area about 20 years ago. What a wonderful touch it would be, if in his new capacity as Poet Laureate, he would make a return visit to Scranton to complete the circle.

I’ve decided to relaunch my blog by commemorating the 30th anniversary of the release of Declaration of Independents, a compilation of independent label rock music that I co-executive produced with Steve Leeds, now of Sirius satellite radio. It was the only album on the label we co-owned, Ambition Records. Declaration was one of the first compilations of its type, fittingly released on July 4, 1980. We licensed 13 songs from small labels nationwide, by such artists as SVT (from San Francisco, with Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna), Bubba Lou and the Highballs (also from San Francisco), Robin Lane and the Chartbusters (Boston); Kevin Dunn (Atlanta; with a highly original electronic version of Chuck Berry’s “Nadine”); Pylon (Athens, Ga.; their cut “Cool” was co-produced by the band and Dunn); The News (Rock Springs, Wy.), Luxury (Des Moines) and Ragnar Kvaran (Ann Arbor). There were also several cuts from Washington, D.C., area artists: Razz (with Tommy Keene), Tex Rubinowitz and the late Root Boy Slim; and two from Springfield, Mo., Jim Wunderle and D. Clinton (Donnie) Thompson, one of the most phenomenal roots-rock guitarists, then and now. It was distributed in the UK by Stiff Records, then at or near the height of its fame. The amazing cover art (you can get a basic idea of it from a 2008 Wilfully Obscure blog post) was by Steve Byram and David Gambale. The musician associated with the LP who arguably became most successful, Ben Vaughn, didn’t even play on it. He designed Ambition Records’ logo, in his other capacity at the time as a graphic designer. Steve Leeds, Ben and I remain friends, but I’ve lost touch with most of the artists, and would love to hear from them, if any see this post. And if you enjoyed the album, it would be great to hear from you.