The Sea Trilogy

When I was fourteen, dismayed by high school (longing to drop out), I managed to get Mononucleosis, or the kissing disease, it’s sometimes called (for some reason). It gave me the chance to withdraw into my bedroom and read and make notes. Didn’t venture out of my small room too much.

Two books sparked a dream of writing for a lifetime. Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, and Rachel Carson’s The Sea Around Us. One, a novel about breathing the brisk air of an Alpine rest-sanitorium, experiencing life and ideas (I thought I was Hans Castorp); the other, a… show more.