A Book Beginning What And Ending Away arrived today - there it was lying on my desk having been thoughtfully carried up from Reception by Francis the concierge. Like Christmas in May.

It's a forbiddingly thick wad of a tome (Coolidge-isms are contagious). God knows if I'll ever read it in its entirety. Or maybe that's not the way: rather emulate CC's own habits of skimming, waiting for a word to catch & then riding the energy wave until the board flips.

Tom Orange writes about 'woodshedding' - a word (& concept) I feel I really should have come across before. As such, a monastic-style self-imposed seclusion by a jazz musician to explore their instrument & develop their chops. This book, then, is the product of Coolidge's own explorations - specular, speculate, specularum - deep down in the language cave.

"... since 1997 he has lived in Petaluma, California, with his wife Susan and a celestial library." (inside flap)

Imagine.