1942 - Shillington, P. Dear Diary, New Book and DiscoveriesMother bought me a book today. A mystery called The Case of the Drowning Duck. It's a new book, from my all-time favorite author, Erle Stanley Gardener ("John Updike Bio-1"). I was able to start reading my new book at the top of Mount Penn at the Pagoda earlier today. I especially loved seeing the views of Reading, Pennsylvania below. I discovered that the irritable red spots on my arms were psoriasis ("John Updike Bio-1"). Just another problem I'll have to deal with, besides the fat Gillette guys on the street talking about my stutter. At times like this, I wish I had an older brother who could put those smart guys in their place. Later that evening, Grandpa asked me to help him repair this old jalopy. She runs on her last leg. I hope she pulls through, otherwise he'll have to buy a new one. After dinner, I read more chapters of my book. I really think I'm going to enjoy this one! Until next time, John 1945 - Plowville, PAD Dear Diary, Moving to PlowvilleMy family has just moved 11 miles from Shillington to Plowville. This is the town where my mother was born. The mother says “she wants to get back to her roots” (John Updike Bio-1). We live in an old but very comfortable stone house on a huge 80 acre farm. I really enjoy living here now. I love listening to the animals and birds at sunset and reading in the old barn. (Liukknen) My mother seems to like this space; it was quite cramped at my grandparents' house. It's been a few months since we moved and my mom is still cleaning our new house. New pictures and paintings appear on the walls during the day and then are moved to another room or put back in a storage box. I am happy to be able to continue g...... middle of paper ......and fantasies and small discoveries of the dark marks on the paper which become beautifully reproducible several times still seem to me, after almost 30 years concerned with book-making, a magical act and a delightful technical process. To be distributed in this way, like a sort of rain of confetti falling on the heads and shoulders of humanity from bookstores and the pages of magazines, is certainly a great privilege and a challenge to the usual earthly laws by which human beings are made know each other. "("John Updike>Quotes) "I tried to connect with the theory that I can still do this and get published and that a professional writer is what I intended to be when I was a teenager and I was lucky enough, in this increasingly rare profession, to have managed to get out of it” (De Wilde) In memory of John Hoyer Updike.1932-2009