Book 32 on my list was The Rural Life by Verlyn Klinkenborg. This book is a compilation of short stories {articles really} that were written as an ongoing segment in the New Yorker and the New York Times over the course of many years. In this book, the stories are categorized month by month and take you through an entire year of rural living.
I think the book is best read in bits and pieces since the stories are written over an extended time period and don't necessarily relate to each other. They also cover different locations so at times it can be confusing.
Overall I enjoyed the writing. I related to much of it since I currently live in a rural area.
Excerpts from the book:
Everyone reaches for fullness in summer, but the fullness that most of us know best belongs to the memory of childhood.
When you take on a property... you leave traces of yourself with every decision you make... In twenty years' time, a self-portrait emerges, and it exposes all the subtleties of your character, whether you like it or not.
A vista is no longer the point of departure for an experience... it has become the experience.
Some people dream of living in a world without work. But the better dream... is that of a world in which everyone has the work he wants.... There's something static about a new house, something terminal. This old house invites adaptation because it embodies a history of adaptation. A new house just stands there, settling, waiting for someone to come along and wonder what's under those walls or why tow bedrooms can't be merged into one...
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