Research, eBooks, and non-linear thought
While in Corpus Christi, I stopped at the venerable Half-Price Books, the mostly used books bookstore. I happened across a copy of A Texas Cow Boy, with the thoroughly engaging subtitle of Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony.
Understanding that I might never really read it in its archaic style and possibly stilted prose, I passed on buying that copy, although it was a handsome edition on heavy stock paper, hardbound.
Later that evening, I happened across a reference to WPA Guide books, and I did a quick search for a Texas one. Didn’t find that in a cursory search, but it did turn up a free copy of the text for 15 Years on the hurricane deck of a Spanish pony.
Might become my next Ulysses.
“It was a bright morning, on the 7th day of February 1856, as near as I can remember, that your humble Servant came prancing into this wide and wicked world.”
Excerpt From: Chas. A. Siringo. “A Texas Cow Boy / or, fifteen years on the hurricane deck of a Spanish pony, / taken from real life.”
“By glancing over the map you will find his birthplace, at the extreme southern part of the Lone Star State, on the Peninsula of Matagorda, a narrow strip of land bordered by the Gulf of Mexico on the south and Matagorda Bay on the north.”
Some article about the original author piqued my curiosity pointing to this as one of the first of the Western Literature. Where the Myth of the West started?
The non-linear process is about search, research, abandoned literature, then found material.
That book? The text that spurred this onward? Got it loaded on the iPad, might read it one day. Obviously, I’ve made it through the first couple of pages.
Flipped around, from MinimalMac.com, part of my book, Drawer For Wishes was written on an iPhone.
“I will tell you how it happened.”
iPad:
Just a strange little notation, a purported high-school student makes a list about what iPad apps are required. For high school. Price, usability, functional, and mirrors much of what I would say. Bare-bones. Just a footnote to a footnote.
Not a Problem:
Happily, not a plug-in I use. Or recommend.
