Based on a recommendations on Kaye Dacus and Steve Laube’s blogs, I checked out the bestsellers the week I was born (Dec 11, 1951). What a great way to understand the world I entered. The number 1 fiction bestseller was The Caine Mutiny by Herman Woulk and the non-fiction number 1 bestseller was by Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us. Over half the books included in the 16 titles for each categories were books and authors I know, such as The Catcher in the Rye, From Here to eternity, A Man Called Peter, Kon-Tiki, and authors Irving Stone, Graham Greene, Thomas Mann and Winston S. Churchill. It was a world trying to heal from World War II through words and stories. It was a world beginning to stretch beyond the ordinary and willing to stand against authority. It was a world that valued a good love story. It was world reaching to understand its resources. It was a world seeking its God. All in all a pretty interesting place in which to be born.
There were many people, events and concepts which impacted me at this year’s conference. However the skies over Ghost Ranch held the greatest impact because of what it represented. The weather was outstanding, just a little colder than last year, but still very doable. Thursday afternoon there were some clouds and a few snow flurries. Otherwise, it was this deep blue color.
