AUSTIN, Texas, July 31, 2004 — A translation of Homer's Odyssey by T.E. Lawrence on the bike and in the car (while FFP drove around). All today's papers and some old ones.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 30, 2004 — A translation of Homer's Odyssey by T.E. Lawrence on the bike. Some newspapers.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 29, 2004 — A translation of Homer's Odyssey by T.E. Lawrence on the bike. Odysseus tells of his encounter with the Cyclops.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 29, 2004 — A translation of Homer's Odyssey by T.E. Lawrence on the bike. Much feasting and gods appearing in various forms. Today's newspapers. Some old newspapers.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 28, 2004 — A translation of Homer's Odyssey by T.E. Lawrence. Started a book about Gertrude Stein, too. Today's newspapers. (Except the Wall Street Journal threw Tuesday's paper again!) Also read some paper sections over a year old. We were worried about SARS. And the war was still fresh and people were hopeful.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 27, 2004 — A translation of Homer's Odyssey by T.E. Lawrence.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 26, 2004 — Back to reading a translation of Homer's Odyssey by T.E. Lawrence. Read all the day's papers. Lots of Lance and Democrats.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 25, 2004 — Today's papers and finishedThe Wilde Album by Merlin Holland. (Small book.) What to read next?

AUSTIN, Texas, July 24, 2004 — Today's papers and some quite old arts and travel and science and home sections I found in my car. Started The Wilde Album by Merlin Holland, a little book by Oscar Wilde's grandson packed with photos and sketches. Oscar was born in Dublin and while, like Joyce, he left Ireland behind, I figure it is good background reading for the Dublin trip.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 23, 2004 — FinishedA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. It is difficult to follow, but good. Imagine reading Ulysses. Newspapers.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 22, 2004 — A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Newspapers.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 21, 2004 — A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is still in progress. Newspapers. (I learned that methamphetamine can destroy rather significant parts of your brain.)

AUSTIN, Texas, July 20, 2004 — A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is still in progress. Newspapers, of course.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 19, 2004 — A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man got read on the bicycle including this hell fire and brimstone sermon Stephen listens to. I was reading The New York Times Magazine and there was an article on adult attention deficit disorder and I couldn't stick with it to read it...how funny is that?

AUSTIN, Texas, July 18, 2004 —There I was, sitting in my car on the access road reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I also read most of the Sunday Statesman and New York Times.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 17, 2004 — A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and some of the day's papers. Plus some older papers.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 16, 2004 — A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and some of the day's papers. Also read some of The Odyssey, a prose translation by T.E. Lawrence. Read an article without verbs in The Wall Street Journal talking about a French novel without verbs.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 15, 2004 — A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and the day's papers. Also, a copy of Wine Spectator, particularly the article on coffee.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 14, 2004 — A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and the day's papers.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 13, 2004 — A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man will go slowly...I'm still reding the introduction. Also read the papers and a Dublin guide book.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 12, 2004 —Started A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man .

AUSTIN, Texas, July 12, 2004 —FinishedThe Secret Life of the Seine. The book is good because instead of just a bunch of facts and interviews he tells about living on a boat and going up and down the river in it, too. Read all the newspapers. On the day they arrived. I know. Miracle.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 11, 2004 —The Secret Life of the Seine still in progress. Read almost all the Sunday papers and some old ones.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 10, 2004 —The Secret Life of the Seine still in progress. Read a bunch of current and old newspapers. Worked a few crossword puzzles.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 9, 2004 —The Secret Life of the Seine by Mort Rosenblum was one of the candidates for taking on the trip. By reading it I'm sort of refusing to move on, to read about Dublin, to maybe read Ulysses. I have read one (short) book about the book and FFP has a copy of Stuart Gilbert's book in the bathroom I've read a few pages of. (This is an analysis written in the '30s with Joyce's 'assistance.') That book says that reading The Odyssey and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man are essential background. Better get busy!

AUSTIN, Texas, July 8, 2004 —The Secret Life of the Seine by Mort Rosenblum is my current bicycle read. (And also 'before the performance begins' reading.) I read in the paper that no one reads anymore, especially literature. (Well, half the people don't. But if half the people do.) Heck no when they have to read over nine hundred pages of Bill Clinton!

AUSTIN, Texas, July 7, 2004 —Newpapers. A Dublin guide book.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 6, 2004 —Newpapers. Some of the Seine book.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 5, 2004 —Newpapers. Depressing. Over a hundred million women with mutilated gentalia in Africa. Religion reasserts itself as a campaign issue. Started a book about the Seine River. Poked around in a prose translation of The Odyssey by Lawrence of Arabia that I picked up on the bargain shelf. Background for Ulysses and thus Dublin.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 4, 2004 —Finished'yes I said yes I will Yes'. One really interesting little article was by the guy who translated Ulysses into Chinese. Imagine!

AUSTIN, Texas, July 3, 2004 —Continued reading 'yes I said yes I will Yes.' and looked at some Dublin guide books. Read some papers.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 2, 2004 —Started a little book about a very, very big book. It is called 'yes I said yes I will Yes.' Subtitled A Celebration of James Joyce, Ulysses, and 100 Years of Bloomsday. It is a collection of quotes and observations and history of Joyce's historical, puzzling, enigmatic, literature-changing tome.

AUSTIN, Texas, July 1, 2004 —Finished Trains of Thought by Victor Brombert. This is an excellent memoir with great connections to history and literatue. Brombert is a well-respected scholar who is nonetheless brutally honest about himself as a teenager and young man. His (Jewish) family escapes Russia, then Germany, then France and he returns to Normandy and finally Berlin as a U.S. Citizen and part of the liberating Allies. Then he goes to Yale on the GI bill and becomes a respected scholar. It's one of those books that is better read with a dictionary because every twenty or so pages you will find a word you don't know. (Or at least I did.) It's a great book for extracting quotes, too. I put one on the journal cover. Here is another good one:

"I often wondered if it is because I recognize the child in me that I find it so hard to take myself seriously....The imp of pretentiousness should be thwarted."