In My Own Voice. Reading from My Collected Works(Kobo/電子書)

Each of us, in our individual lives, has a moment or two of epiphany. That is to say, a moment of surpassing importance and significance. Mine took place in summertime at the Downers Grove Library.

My mother had begun taking me to the library very early in my life.

I was voracious about stories, could never get enough of them, and was always grateful to be advised on their presentation and explanation. In this way, the librarians came to present me with readings from the great poets... people like Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg.

I can well remember being told by the ladies one day that they had a present for me... and so they stationed me in a rather dark, gray room, everything cool to the touch, and turned on their latest acquisition.

"I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I shan't be gone long. -- You come too.

I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother. It's so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I shan't be gone long. -- You come too."

"The Pasture", Robert Frost (1915)

I played this poem so often, each time hearing a little more of its author, the often irritated and irascible Robert Frost. I like the way he rolled those three little words: "you come too." Only he didn't pronounce it like that. Great poets have great eccentricities, and his were encapsuled in his rendering of these three words. Thus "ah you come too". It was a call to come and be sociable, come and share, come and see your neighborhood and everything in it.

So powerful and so unfading were these words that when Robert Frost's Cambridge home came on the market, I almost bought it, just so that I could sit in the parlor and read my envious friends from the poet's ghost that resided there with all its poems, just for me.

Now, I have the opportunity to read my own works... to you, and hope that you will hear just how personal they are, and how each one, so powerfully written, touches your heart, because that is what I aim for.

This book contains five of my favorite essays... the one that I wrote when I turned 65; the one bringing you inside a great nor'easter; the one detailing the foolish hijinx of Captain Owen Honors, United States Navy; the one detailing the turbulent life of Amy Winehouse, a warning if there ever was one; and finally, one about the Andrews Sisters... three girls who kept America jumping throughout its greatest war, and reminded us what we were fighting for.

I have a special word for all you young people reading these essays. You have so many media choices that you may well overlook the importance and value of hearing authors read from their own works. This is something you need to do... you need to hear what they write, in their own way, and you need to recite what they write in your own way. If you cannot do this, you will miss so much of the pleasure of both author and reader.

And this special note to you library ladies: you did me such a life-changing favor so many years ago. Now, I want you to take what I have written, what I have recited here, and pass on the importance of the writers voice for the next generation, and the next after that.

And now without further ado, here's the first volume in this series. Read the text along with the video, then read it again, until you are as expert in my quirks and foibles as I am myself.

Dr. Jeffrey Lant

From The Red Drawing Room

Cambridge, Massachusetts,August 2016

Kobo 電子書 購買注意事項如下:

(一)如果您是第一次購買Kobo電子書的顧客，請依以下兩種購買方式擇一進行綁定：

1.PChome 24h 網頁版(https://24h.pchome.com.tw/)：結帳後至顧客中心，確認訂單狀態，若為確認中，請稍候五分鐘，待訂單狀態變為訂單成立後，點選明細，在訂單資訊中點選〔內容〕，在彈跳視窗後點選〔去兌換〕，即可前往Kobo官網執行綁定及登入流程。

我的訂單/顧客中心 >訂單查詢> 訂單編號> 點選明細 > 訂單資訊 點選〔內容〕>彈跳視窗 點選〔去兌換〕即可前往Kobo官網執行綁定及登入流程。

2.PChome APP版：結帳後至顧客中心，確認訂單狀態，若為確認中，請稍候五分鐘，待訂單狀態變為訂單成立後，點選明細，在訂單資訊中點選[序號/軟體下載]，並在彈跳視窗出現後點選〔下載連結〕，即可前往Kobo官網執行綁定及登入流程。

顧客中心> 訂單查詢> 訂單編號> 點選明細 > 訂單資訊 點選 [序號/軟體下載] >彈跳視窗 點選〔下載連結〕即可前往Kobo官網執行綁定及登入流程。

*進入Kobo官網後的綁定流程請參考如下：

（使用Kobo主帳號 登入/註冊）
1. 當您在PChome 24h 網頁版(https://24h.pchome.com.tw/)/PChome APP版，購買確認後，並依步驟跳轉到Kobo官網時，下滑點選〔更多登錄選項〕，由〔PChome〕後點選進入，同意後登入，並可以註冊Kobo主帳號進行綁定，完成後，所購買的書籍即會出現在Kobo APP/Kobo 閱讀器/Kobo官網內的我的書籍。

（使用快速登入：FACEBOOK、GOOGLE、APPLE帳號登入）
2. 當您在PChome 24h 網頁版(https://24h.pchome.com.tw/)/PChome APP版，購買確認後，並依指示跳轉到Kobo官網時，點選〔FACEBOOK、GOOGLE、APPLE帳號登入〕擇一登入，同意後登入，並可以註冊Kobo主帳號進行綁定，完成後，所購買的書籍即會出現在Kobo APP/Kobo 閱讀器/Kobo官網內的我的書籍。

(二)如果您是已經完成PChome與Kobo帳號綁定程序，非第一次購買Kobo電子書的顧客

1.PChome 24h 網頁版(https://24h.pchome.com.tw/)：結帳後至顧客中心，確認訂單狀態，若為確認中，請稍候五分鐘，待訂單狀態變為訂單成立後，點選明細，在訂單資訊中點選〔內容〕，在彈跳視窗後點選〔去兌換〕，所購買的書籍即會出現在Kobo APP/Kobo 閱讀器/Kobo官網內的我的書籍。

2.PChome APP版：結帳後至顧客中心，確認訂單狀態，若為確認中，請稍候五分鐘，待訂單狀態變為訂單成立後，點選明細，在訂單資訊中點選[序號/軟體下載]，並在彈跳視窗出現後點選〔下載連結〕，所購買的書籍即會出現在Kobo APP/Kobo 閱讀器/Kobo官網內的我的書籍。

- 退換貨:依樂天Kobo官方規範為準

- 僅能由 閱讀器以外 的裝置做會員帳號綁定

- 請注意，帳號綁定後：

* Kobo會更新您的帳戶詳細資料

* 您將能在Kobo APP/Kobo 閱讀器/Kobo官網中查看所有書籍

* 帳號綁定後，您可以使用任一帳戶登入 Kobo

* 完成第一次串接時，請登出所有裝置，約等待5分鐘後再登入即可查看您的書籍

* 重新登入後，原帳戶中的書籍如有畫線註記和收藏將有遺失的可能。登出前，請務必先行拍照備份

* 若您有任何相關疑問請至Kobo官方網站 https://help.kobo.com/hc/zh-tw 並到頁面最下方點選“聯繫我們”