Category Archives: Immortality

Ive been buying books like never before. Buying books is a pleasure, a joy, a release. Its a way to feel like Im buying possibilities for the future. I buy books for my 8-year-old son, to give him the same pleasure and possibility. I buy them for my husband and friends. My rate of book-buying has increased during the pandemic because it cheers me up. We all need cheering up.

Ive been thinking a lot about that the feeling getting a new book gives me: its a feeling of openness and space. Ive bought myself potential. This is a book that wont just give me hours of entertainment and absorption, but it will become a part of my brain, it will take its place next to all the other books Ive read, on my shelf and in my mind. It will become part of me. I could be a new person because of this book.

Each new book also opens up new channels of possibility because, as every avid reader knows, reading books leads to more even books. I think of all the areas I like to read in: contemporary literary fiction, essay collections, memoirs, books in translation, genre-bending nonfiction books, contemporary poetry, collections of letters and diaries, small-press books, books by and about Romantic-era writers, weird novellas, group biographies of writers, books about books, craft books, and on and on and on. Every book I buy opens each reading interest up a little further.

I learn about new books and authors because the author Im reading raves about them. I discover I want to read a writers backlist. A blurb or review of a book by another writer resonates with me, and I want to read that persons books as well. Someone on Twitter tells me that I because I liked X author, I will probably like Y as well. The TBR list grows. The books Im currently reading offer all this richness while Im reading them, and the books I decide to buy hold the promise that they will do this for me in the future. They will not only introduce me to new books, but they will introduce me to new fields of reading that I will love. I dont know what they are, but I know they are out there.

But! I dont have time for all this! Im not a fast reader, but that doesnt matter. I could be the fastest reader in the world, and Id never read all the books I want to. I hate to admit it, butI will die before I can read all the books I want to. They multiply out before me, more every day. Im accumulating books faster than I can read them.

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Some numbers: in my personal library, I have 2,194 print books. Of those books, 938 are on my TBR list, unread. I have 531 ebooks, 379 of which are unread, and 53 audiobooks, 12 of which are unread. That means I own 1,329 books I havent read. (I know all this because I keep stats on LibraryThing.)

Over the last ten years, Ive acquired about 100 print books a year on average. So far in 2021, as of the end of July, Ive acquired 168. The number of ebooks I buy has varied a lot, as I loved reading ebooks for awhile and then stopped loving it. But I have averaged about 50 ebooks a year for the last ten years. My audiobook-buying habit is fairly limited so far.

Some of those books were sent to me for free by publishers, and I cant fully control that, but I am pretty good about getting rid of galleys I wont read, so for the most part, these are books I plan to read eventually. I also keep a list of books I want to read but that I dont own (I do this on Goodreads). Right now, that list has 1,158 books on it.

Now, how many do I read? In a good year, its 100 or so, counting all formats. Last year was my highest ever, with 111. In 2017, which was a terrible year, I read 56. Usually its between 80 and 100. Only some of the books I read come from my personal collection, as I love to read books from the library, too. So Ive been accumulating 150+ books per year while reading between 70 and 90, after accounting for library books. This is how I ended up owning 1,329 books that I havent read. You can see the problem. That number is going up all the time.

Theres another issue that weighs on me, one that is uncomfortable to talk about, but that gets more pressing the older I get. My husband and I have thousands of print books. My son is an only child. If we keep those books until we die, he will be left having to dispose of them. Who knows how that will work out anything can happen but there is a real possibility he will be left having to clear out a house stuffed with books. I dont want to burden him with this.

Im also aware that buying all these books means spending a lot of money on entertainment, and its entertainment I might die before experiencing, or entertainment I might lose interest in because it takes me so long to get to it. As a privileged person, maybe surely Im not spending my money well. Wouldnt it be better to send at least some of that money to social and political causes I care about? I already do donate money, but I could always send more.

Even with all these questions lingering in my mind, I still keep buying books. Im buying them like Im immortal, like I will actually get to all of them because I have endless time. On the one hand, this habit is a problem, a problem that is based on delusions of immortality. On the other, it feels life-affirming. It feels life-affirming during a time of pandemic and social and political upheaval.

Im not sure what to do with all this, except to think that maybe as we emerge from the pandemic, my need to buy books will lessen. Maybe as I get older, Ill get better about getting rid of books I wont read. Maybe Ill use the library more. Im not sure, but in the meantime, its a comfort to have huge TBR stacks that will keep me going for a long, long time.

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Buying Books Like Im Immortal: Death and the TBR - Book Riot

Sport

5 Aug, 2021 12:56 AM3 minutes to read

Unbeatable Lisa Carrington storms to another final. Video / Sky Sport

Turbo-charged kayaker Lisa Carrington has a shot at Olympic immortality today after qualifying for the final of the K1 500m.

With original superlatives in increasingly short supply, the GOAT in the boat won her semifinal convincingly to give her a shot at her third gold medal of these Olympics.

Carrington jumped out hard and early, seemingly having her race locked up by the halfway mark, where she led Australia's Alyce Wood by 1.27s. She maintained that gap to win in 1m 51.680s, the fastest time of the four semifinals.

If Carrington finishes in the top three this afternoon, she will take her total Olympic medal haul to six, one more than fellow kayakers Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald, and equestrian Mark Todd. Her current total of four gold medals puts her equal with Ferguson.

Given the fact she is world champion in the discipline, it would take a major upset, or a sudden onset of fatigue given her taxing programme, for her to miss out.

Carrington was not the only New Zealander bidding for the final.

Caitlin Regal left everything on the course in her bid to make the A final but just tied up in the final 100m to finish third, qualifying her for the B final.

With a gold medal in her locker in the K2 500m and the K4 to come, it has been an outstanding regatta for the Aucklander but with 250m to go it looked like it was going to be even better.

Fast out of the blocks, as seems to be the New Zealand way, she was behind only hot favourite Tamara Csipes (Hungary) at the halfway mark and well ahead of Belgium's Hermiem Peters.

As the red lane markers signifying 100m to go came into view Regal started to tie up and Peters overtook her with about 50m to go. To Regal's credit she hung in there and finished just .666s out of second.

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Full Kiwi schedule below. Click on a name to see athlete's bio, upcoming events, past Games performance and medal chance.

Carrington, 32, will line up in the final against Csipes, Peters, Wood, Danuta Kozak (Hungary), Teresa Portela (Portugal), Linnea Stensils (Sweden) and Emma Jorgensen (Denmark).

Hungary's Csipes is potentially the biggest impediment to the top step. Her semifinal time of 1m 51.698s was just .018 outside Carrington's time.

Kiwi duo Max Brown and Kurtis Imrie will also be racing for a medal thanks to a strong race in the K2 1000m semifinal.

Brown and Imrie finished second in the first semi in a time of 3:17.684, .607 behind the dominant Australian pair of Thomas Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen.

Their final is at 3.55pm this afternoon. Carrington goes for gold at 3.29pm.

See the rest here:

Tokyo Olympics 2020: Shot at Games immortality as Lisa Carrington storms into another final in the K1 500m - New Zealand Herald

Former Iowa wrestler Thomas Gilman won the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials on Saturday night

Former Iowa wrestler Thomas Gilman won the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials on Saturday night in Fort Worth.

Cody Goodwin, Des Moines Register

Thomas Gilman settled into a media room and put on some headphones. An interview moderator began speaking All right, congratulations, he began then teed up a question that caused Gilman to consider himself.

Tell me about the match, the moderator continued. Do you feel like you came out of nowhere?

Came out of nowhere? Gilman responded with a chuckle. Ive been around since 2017, when I won a silver medal at the world championships.

Gilmans eyes opened wide, and the chuckle became a laugh.

No disrespect, hecontinued. That kind of sounded a little arrogant, maybe even a little offensive for me.

The exchange, from April at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials in Texas, revealed both parts of Thomas Gilman: the fiery competitor who willed himself into one of the worlds top freestyle wrestlers, and the calmer, grateful off-the-mat alter-ego. One was instilled at the beginning of his wrestling career, and the other has only recently revealed itself.

Gilman, now 27, believes the combination of the two is the reason hes competing at the Tokyo Olympics, the United States mens freestyle rep at 57 kilograms (125 pounds). He will wrestle late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning (local time) and, if he wins, again early on Thursday morning.

Im doing the same things Ive always done, Gilman, a Council Bluffs native,said earlier this spring. Its just got a little different flair to it.

Thats what makes Gilmancompeting at these Olympics so fascinating, because the same things hes always done have only ever gotten him near the top.

More Olympics coverage:

A brief history:

His Iowa career was decorated, a three-time All-American and 2017 Big Ten champion. But he lost twice in the NCAA semifinals, as a sophomore (by fall, to West Virginias Zeke Moisey) and a senior (when he was previously undefeated). His lone trip to the national finals resulted in a 6-3 loss to Penn States Nico Megaludis.

Near the top, but not at the top a track record that followed him in the early years of his Senior-level freestyle career.

Its been a while now, but Gilman actually won his first 15 Senior-level matches in 2017: twice at the Last Chance Qualifier, six more at the world team trials to make the team, three wins for gold at the Spanish Grand Prix, then four to make the finals at the world championships in Paris.

Then … a 6-0 loss to Japans Yuki Takahashi in the world finals.

Again, near the top, but not at the top.

Gilman made the U.S. world team again in 2018, and reached the semifinals again, but fell to Kazakhstans Nurislam Sanayev in a stunning 11-0 technical fall. That sent Gilman to the bronze-medal match … where he stumbled again, 5-4 to Turkeys Suleyman Atli.

Again, near the top, but not at the top.

The next year, 2019, Gilman failed to make the U.S. world team altogether, losing to Oklahoma State star Daton Fix, two matches to one, in the best-of-three finals.

To be fair, its not like these guys Gilman lost to are scrubs. Takahashi, Sanayev and Atli are all two-time world medalists in Senior mens freestyle. Fix has twice reached the NCAA finals, won the U.S. Open in 2019 and has won four age-level world medals, including a Junior world title in 2017.

But the fiery competitor inside him burned. The goal has always been to win an Olympic gold medal, not just compete with the best guys in the world.

I forgot how to win, Gilman said. Im always in those matches against the best guys in the world. But for a long time, I had a hard time figuring out how to win. At the end of the day, thats what history remembers, winning.

More wrestling coverage from the Des Moines Register

The changes started small, then grew. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the Olympics back a year, forcing athletes in all sports to pause.

For Gilman, it allowed him to reflect.

I got to a point in my wrestling career where, quite frankly, I wasnt sure how much fun I was really having, he said. It felt like a job, and of course it is a job, but that doesnt mean it cant be fun. Theres a certain point where you just need change.

Change isnt bad. Change is good. You need to be uncomfortable to grow. I was in a rut, mentally and physically, and thats not on anybody but myself.

So he left Iowa.

After nearly eight years in Iowa City, Gilman joined the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club, housed at Penn State. His wife, Melissa, is from Pennsylvania, the younger sister of former Iowa wrestler Mike Evans, a three-time All-American. They were marriedlast October, and recently announced that Melissa is pregnant, a girl due in December.

As it pertains to his competitive career, training in State College allowed Gilman to pick new wrestling minds,likeCael Sanderson, a four-timeNCAA champ at Iowa State who has coached Penn State to eight national team titles since 2011;David Taylor, a fellowOlympian;Roman Bravo-Young, an NCAA champ;and so many others.

So the move made sense, much to the chagrin of diehard Iowa wrestling fans.

But the first changes Gilman made had almost nothing to do with wrestling.

I learned that I needed to watch my mouth a little bit, Gilman said and laughed. Ive always expressed myself differently than others, but I just curse too much sometimes.

Cael and them, they dont. Its not that its not allowed, but they just dont.

Its a small thing, but also illustrative of a larger point. Gilman humbled himself as a struggling wrestler, for one, but also as a man building a new home and life. He looked inward and discovered the calmer, grateful off-the-mat alter-ego in the process.

Gilman said those changes ultimately helped his wrestling. The results back that up. At the Olympic Trials, his bracket included a Senior world bronze medalist, another world team member, a Junior world silver medalist, two NCAA champs and three other All-Americans.

He stormed to first, and won his four matches by a combined 34-6.

Looking at the big picture, Ive grown in this last year more than just a wrestler, Gilman said afterward. I became a better man, a better person … and I found a love for the sport again.

People say, Well, youve been at Penn State for a year and youre still doing the same dang things. Maybe, but my mind is different. Im more confident in the things Im bringing to the mat.

That newfound love for the sport, and the confidence that came with it,is the different flair that Gilman's competed with. He's added it to the things he's always done,and it will be perhaps the mostimportant ingredient if he wants to win in Tokyo in the coming days.

The 57-kgfield is among the deepest in the competition. Seven of the eight world medalists from the last four years are expected to compete: Takahashi, Sanayev and Atli, plus Russias Zaur Uguev, the two-time defending world champ, Indias Ravi Kumarand Mongolias Erdenbat Bekhbayar, both bronze medalists and, of course, Gilman.

The Olympics is the biggest stage of all, but its really no different than any other high-level competition, said Bill Zadick, USA Wrestlings mens freestyle coach, so we remind them of that and keep focused on the details and what we need to do.

That helps keep them grounded and allows them to step on the mat feeling open-minded and free so they can wrestle and perform their best.

History has shown that Gilmanis at his best when hes the fiery competitor on the mat.It often made appearances offthe mat while in college, and still sometimes shows up now.

At the Olympic Trials, for example, Gilman chuckled at the moderator for saying he came out of nowhere, dropped a military analogy to describe onewin You open up the battle with some artillery to loosen up the infantry, then you storm the trenchesand alluded to a quote fromPenn State wrestler Nick Lee after another.

Chop wood, carry water, Gilman said. And whats that mean? I dont know, Google it.

He paused.

Essentially, for me, its back to work tomorrow, Gilman said.

Then he smiled. Even afterall the maturity from the last year, hecouldn't help himself.

Im still a little ornery.

Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.

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At the Tokyo Olympics, Thomas Gilmans chase for wrestling immortality continues - Hawk Central

Has this ever happened to you? Youre cavorting through deep space at near the speed of light without a care of the world when, suddenly, you realize you forgot to replace the toner cartridge in your office printer back on Earth before you left.

Rather than face your disappointed co-workers after such an unforgivable oversight, you decide it would be best if you just stopped time and waited for them all to die before you return to work.

So, like any space traveler hip to the works of Albert Einstein, you decide to park your spaceship at the perfect edge of a black hole.

Nothing good, thats what. But its a lot of fun to talk about.

Einsteins theory of general relativity tells us that an object placed perfectly at the edge of a black holes event horizon should be able to maintain a temporal dissonance.

In other words: a sufficiently strong gravitational pull such as that exhibited by a black hole should warp spacetime around it. If you were standing near the edge of a black hole and your buddy flew by in their spaceship, in the time it took for you to wave at them theyd have potentially aged by weeks, months, or even years.

And thats because time is a vague concept used by physicists to explain the systemic changes which occur in our universe.

If we lived in total nothingness, nothing would ever happen, and there could be no concept of time. But, because things happen in the universe we live in, we use time to explain the observable differences between both similar and disparate events.

Whats awesome about things in the universe that have enough mass to have gravity is that they can actually change our experience of time.

If youre on the Earth, time goes a tiny bit slower than if youre inside a spaceship in deep space. And, because black holes are the most massive things we know of, time can theoretically come to a perfect stop once youre close enough to a singularitys event horizon.

Think of time like the needle on a record player. When you play a record at the right speed, it should sound the way its supposed to it rotates in normal time. But if you put your thumb on the record as its spinning and press down with just enough force, you can cause the platter to slow down and distort the audio. Itll sound as though time itself has slowed down.

And, with sufficient pressure, you can stop the album from spinning altogether. Thats pretty much how the theory of general relativity works.

A black hole should be able to warp spacetime sufficiently that someone standing in the perfect spot would experience time in a way exclusive from the rest of the universe.

In a way, this would make you immortal. But youd never know it. Unfortunately for you and your crew, youd all live relativelynormal lives and eventually die of old age. A minute would feel like a minute, a year would feel like a year, and so on and so forth.

However, the entire universe outside of the black hole might experience thousands or millions of years in the time it takes you and your crew to grow old and die.

So, its slightly plausible to think you could time things just right. With sufficiently advanced quantum computers and spacetime plotting systems (the latter is something I just made up) its theoretically possible that we could punch in some numbers, navigate to the perfect spot at the edge of a black hole, and wait out our co-workers lifespans before zipping back to the Earth in what would feel like just a few hours to us.

But the whole spaghettification issue might pose a problem.

Only if you eat it. Becoming spaghetti is almost certainly not yummy.

At some point between the outside of a black hole and the area of space surrounding it thats affected by its gravity, an object starts to feel the pull of the black hole.

This is a kind of gravity were not use to dealing with. When you jump up in the air and fall back down here on Earth, thats gravity pulling on your mass. But when you dial that up to black hole levels, gravity starts pulling on your individual atoms.

Eventually, any matter that gets close enough to a black holes event horizon will begin to stretch and distort until it looks like a flat, elongated piece of pasta. That means the individual cells in your body and the teeny, tiny things those cells are made of end up looking like wet space noodles.

So there you have it. Parking your spaceship at the perfect edge of a black holes gravitational pull will either make you technically immortal without actually bestowing any of the health benefits of immortality (such as not ever dying) or itll turn you into cosmic spaghetti.

Original post:

Immortality or spaghetti? Why parking your spaceship inside a black hole is a huge gamble - The Next Web

HBO Max has released the official trailer and poster for The Immortal (LImmortale), the feature film spin-off from the acclaimed Max Original series Gomorrah debuting July 29.

The movie finds the notorious, indestructible Naples mobster Ciro Di Marzio (Marco DAmore) in Riga, Latvia, where he turns a low-level counterfeit goods syndicate into a major drug trafficking enterprise despite the incalculable risks.

After reuniting with his first mentor Bruno (Salvatore DOnofrio) and receiving his latest mission, an exiled Ciro is left to fearlessly confront whatever comes his way, navigating a new chapter of gang warfare while grappling with devastating memories of loss and trauma.

Weaving between Ciros past as an orphan in Naples cruel underworld and his present as a hardened, cunning assassin with nothing left to lose, The Immortal plunges into the cold, dark depths of a world where immortality is just another form of damnation.

Based on the book Gomorra by Roberto Savino, the film is directed by Marco DAmore from a screenplay by Leonardo Fasoli, Maddalena Ravagli, Marco DAmore, Francesco Ghiaccio, and Giulia Forgione.

From a story by Leonardo Fasoli, Maddalena Ravagli, Marco DAmore, and Francesco Ghiaccio, the film is produced by Riccardo Tozzi, Giovanni Stabilini, Marco Chimenz, and Gina Gardini.

HBO Max released the fourth season of Gomorrah on May 20th. The critically-acclaimed third season debuted exclusively on HBO Max this January.

The new season turns the spotlight on Genny (Salvatore Esposito), the lone Savastano dynasty survivor: a character who has shed countless skins in the process of morphing from Don Pietros spoiled brat into family boss, husband and father.

The new season sees him on his best behavior precisely for the sake of Azzurra (Ivana Lotito) and little Pietro: with his own family to protect and an activity to reboot, he feels the need for a major life change, committing to legit business while sneaking out, as best he can, from the world his father had him grow up in.

His interests in Naples are now entrusted to Patrizia (Cristiana DellAnna) who, having first betrayed and then killed Scianel, former female leader of The Alliance, has earned her rank within the Savastano clan. Along with Genny, to level the scores and keep the peace in gangland, they will lean on the Levante clan, a branch of late Donna Immas family.

Meanwhile Enzo (Arturo Muselli) and Valerio (Loris De Luna), having tightened their grip over the central Naples turf, are faced with new challenges.

Based on an idea by Roberto Saviano, the fourth season of Gomorrah was produced by Cattleya part of ITV Studios Sky, Fandango in collaboration with Beta Film.

The series is executive produced by Cattleyas Riccardo Tozzi, Gina Gardini, Giovanni Stabilini and Marco Chimenz as well as by Nils Hartman and Sonia Rovai for Sky and developed by Stefano Bises, Leonardo Fasoli, Maddalena Ravagli and Roberto Saviano.

The teleplays were written by Leonardo Fasoli, Maddalena Ravagli, Enrico Audenino and Monica Zapelli. The fourth season was directed by Francesca Comencini who is also the artistic supervisor Claudio Cupellini, Marco DAmore, Enrico Rosati and Ciro Visco.

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The Immortal Trailer and Poster Revealed by HBO Max - VitalThrills.com

Development studio Double Fine has revealed that their upcoming game Psychonauts 2 will have an option that will allow the immortality of the main character, that is, to go through the game without the threat of failure. Double Fine says that all players should enjoy the games and that the transition of the game to the easiest difficulty still counts as beating the game.

All people should be able to enjoy playing video games. Regardless of age and needs. It is an important process for our industry and a challenge we must overcome. At the end of the day, we want you to have fun, laugh, and experience a story that has an impact on you. Under conditions that you set for yourself. says Double Fine.

Psychonauts 2 is not the only game that makes it easier for those who do not want a big challenge. Genre-like game Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart recently had the option to slow down the gameplay as desired in case the player has troubles in certain sequences of the game. Even the acclaimed and hellishly heavy Hades had the option of reduced damage by 20-80%.

However, some players do not share the opinion with the developers who believe that they should make their games more accessible to all players, regardless of their experience or skills. Some believe that it is through overcoming the challenges that the game provides that the game can be fully appreciated.

In Psychonauts 2 we will be playing as Razputin Raz Aquato, trained acrobat and powerful young psychic, who has realized his lifelong dream of joining the international psychic espionage organization knows as the Psychonauts. The story of the game will revolve around how their leader hasnt been the same since he was rescued from a kidnapping and how theres a mole hiding in the Psychonauts headquarters.

Psychonauts 2 is coming out on August 25 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

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Psychonauts 2 Will Have An Immortality Option - Attack of the Fanboy

Before Giannis Antetokounmpo reveled in his first ever NBA Finals this summer, or his first ever MVP award in 2019, he drowned in the pure ecstasy that was his first-ever smoothie. Based on an epic tweet that the then Bucks rookie unleashed in 2014, Giannis had never tried a smoothie in his life and its safe to say that his life was forever changed and transformed, never to revert back to his smoothie-deprived life.

For this newly released colorway of the impressive Giannis Immortality sneaker, Nike recalls this viral moment of the future HOFers life in America by applying a fruit-flavored colorway that matches a smoothie blend, while a mosaic of fruits are featured on the medial side. On the left tongue is a Super Smoothie label, further calling out the Greek Freaks unabashed love of drinkable blended fruits.

This new colorway of the Nike Giannis Immortality (which Nike is calling the Force Field) is available now at Nike for $80 (the cost of about a dozen smoothies). If youre more interested in the signature shoes, the Zoom Freak 3 is hitting US retailers in August.

Where to Buy

Make sure to follow @kicksfinder for live tweets during the release date.

Mens: $80Style Code: DH4470-500

After MarketAvailable Now

North AmericaJul 9th, 2021 (Friday)

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Nike Recalls The First Time Giannis Antetokounmpo Had A Smoothie With Latest Release - Sneaker News

Harry Black Sr. could fly on ice, like most Edmonton kids born with their skates already laced. He carved a line on a pond like a natural jet stream following the way of the wind. Theres a grace and easygoing peace to skating with skill that makes the mind give up some control for the sake of speed.

As a dad, though, Harry was a nervous wreck. He couldnt sit still. He never perched himself in the bleacher seats when his son played Little League baseball. He parked his car beyond center field and stood in the distance, watching from the other side of the fence.

When his son pitched in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series in 1984, Harry paced the concourse at Royals Stadium in Kansas City with his best friend from Canada. Maybe having a buddy there helped him carry the weight of worry.

He was 65 years old, his son, Bud Black, said.

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'He would do anything for this game': How Bud Black quietly reached baseball immortality - The Athletic

Novak Djokovic has taken another step toward tennis immortality after claiming a record-equalling 20th grand slam title with a four-set win over Italys Matteo Berrettini in the Wimbledon final.

His hard-fought 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 6-4 6-3 victory ensured he became the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to claim the first three slams of the year.

Overall he joins Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal with slam win No.20.

Asked what it meant to draw level with his two great rivals, Djokovic said: It means none of us three will stop!

I have to pay a great tribute to Rafa and Roger. They are legends of our sport. The two most important players I ever faced.

They are the reason I am where I am today. They made me realise what I had to do to improve.

The last 10 years has been an incredible journey that is not stopping here.

Federer had 16 grand slam titles when Djokovic won his second in 2011 but over the last decade the Serbian has hunted down his great rivals to achieve what had looked impossible, and the world No.1 does not seem likely to stop there.

He has already made it known he is chasing the golden slam all four major titles and an Olympic singles gold medal in one year, which only Steffi Graf has ever managed previously.

I could definitely envisage that happening, Djokovic said of winning all four slams in a year.

Im going to give it a shot. Im playing well and playing my best tennis at grand slams is my priority.

Berrettini gave it a good go despite heavy strapping on his left thigh, recovering from a poor start to win the first set, but he was unable to become Italys first Wimbledon champion.

Djokovic has now won three consecutive Wimbledon titles and six in total.

The 34-year-old Serbian, who came into the title clash having beaten Berrettini in both of their previous meetings, opened a 5-2 lead in the first set with an early break but the Italian fought back to force a tiebreak which he clinched to draw first blood.

It was only the second set the Serbian had lost in this years championships.

He reacted by racing to a 4-0 lead in the second set before going on to level the match.

A single break of serve in the third and two more breaks in the fourth were enough for Djokovic to close out the contest in front of a raucous Centre Court crowd, who kept on chanting the Italian underdogs name.

Djokovic sealed his place in the record books on his third match point when Berrettinis backhand slice landed in the net.

That was more than a battle. Congratulations to Matteo for a fantastic tournament. It was a tough match today. Hes a true Italian hammer, Djokovic said.

Winning Wimbledon was always the biggest dream as a kid. I have to remember how special this is and not take it for granted and be aware this is a huge honour and privilege.

From being a seven-year-old constructing a trophy out of raw materials to standing here with a sixth trophy. Its incredible.

The rest is here:

Novak Djokovic wins 20th grand slam title at Wimbledon on the road to tennis immortality - The New Daily

On July 10, 1871, Marcel Proust was born, and this year we celebrate the 150th birthday of the author of In Search of Lost Time ( La Recherche Du Temps Perdu), 3,000 pages in seven volumes, four of which appeared in print before his death on Nov. 18, 1922, the remaining three between 1923 and 1927.

He continued writing and revising his monumental lifes work until the day of his death. Roger Shattuck, the Proust scholar, in his illuminating study Prousts Way a Field Guide to In Search of Lost Time. describes the sheer sense of life in the novel that reawakens us to our own existence.

In its pages we find art and music, characters made immortal by his pen, a vision of life that becomes the readers own.

For a moment though, reflecting on Proust takes us back to our own library and our own community. James Merrill, when he was a student at Amherst, developed an obsession with memory and a transformative interest in Proust. In an interview with J.D. McClatchy published in the Paris Review in 1982, Merrill agreed with McClatchys assessment that Proust had been the greatest influence on his career.

And here we are, in Stonington Free Library with one of the most comprehensive collections of books by and about Proust anywhere outside of an academic library. This is entirely thanks to the gift to the library of books from the collection of J.D. (Sandy) McClatchy, who shared Merrills passion for Proust, now in the McClatchy Memorial Corner upstairs in the gallery.

The library also has in its holdings, thanks to the generosity of longtime supporter Charlie Clark, the complete In Search of Lost Time as a book on CD. Another way of discovering this 20th century masterpiece.

And dont forget that Sandys typewriter, the gift of friend and neighbor Robert Palm, is also there in the gallery, silent for over a year but waiting once again for poems to be written on it what better way to celebrate our newly opening world?

But back to James Merrill and his moving tribute, his brilliant poem For Proust. The elegiac tone, heightened by the witty homonyms and stanzaic enjambments carry the narrative forward with a touching urgency as the dying Proust leaves his bed to go out into society one more time.

In the third quatrain, the first line, with its pressing assonance, an internal rhyme and enjambment create an overwhelming sense of fracas until your palms

Are moist with fear

And then -

Back where you came from, up the strait stair, past

All understanding, bearing the whole past.

You make for one dim room without contour

And station yourself there, beyond the pale

Of cough or gardenia, erect, pale.

What has happened is becoming literature.

But of the myriad of words written about Proust, for me those by the distinguished American poet Anthony Hecht (1923-2004) capture the essence of Proust most perfectly in his poem Proust on Skates. In this poem, the description of him skating reflects, in the manner of an homage, a sense of Prousts creative process.

He glides with gaining confidence, inscribes

Tentative passages, thinks again, backtracks,

Comes to a minute point,

Then wheels about in widening sweeps and lobes,

Large Palmer cursives and smooth entrelacs,

Preoccupied, intent

On a subtle, long-drawn style and pliant script

Incised with twin steel blades and qualified

Perfectly to express,

With arms flung wide or gloved hands firmly gripped

Behind his back, attentively, clear-eyed,

A glancing happiness.

It will not last, that happiness; nothing lasts;

But will reduce in time to the clear brew

Of simmering memory

Nourished by shadowy gardens, music, guests,

Childhood affections, and, of Delft, a view

Steeped in a sip of tea.

For much of his life, Hecht himself was haunted, too, by memories, though of a more horrific order. As a young soldier, he was part of the liberation of the Flossenbrg concentration camp in 1945.

The place, the suffering, the prisoners accounts, were beyond comprehension. For

years after I would wake shrieking.

He addressed the Holocaust and the horrors of war in his large body of work, work which won him many awards including the Pulitzer Prize, the Bollingen Award, and his appointment as National Poet Laureate. Perhaps the most painful of all Holocaust poems is his sestina The Book of Yolek. Yolek was five years old. Thanks to Anthony Hecht

Wherever you are, Yolek will be there too.

His unuttered name will interrupt your meal.

Prepare to receive him in your home some day.

Though they killed him in the camp they sent him to,

He will walk in as youre sitting down to a meal.

Memory.

Just a reminder that you can access all these poems online at thepoetryfoundation.org, as well as finding them in the library along with letters and criticism, including the newly published letters of James Merrill and Jonathan Posts critical study of Anthony Hecht, The Thickness of Particulars, as well as his edition of Hechts letters.

But lets circle back to Proust, who exulted in life and its endless joys as he battled his own mortality. In the June Book Notes I likened the lyrics of the 17th century English poet Henry Vaughan to a carving hidden away in the organ loft of a medieval cathedral, awaiting the seeing eye of the curious traveler. I realized later that it was Proust that I was recalling and his book of essays Days of Reading where he describes his experience reading Ruskin. In a famous passage he quotes Ruskins description of a small figure, a few centimeters high, lost amidst hundreds of minuscule figures, in the portal of the Booksellers in Rouen cathedral.

On Ruskins death Proust felt he must go and find this tiny figure which, miraculously, he did. He felt that, in drawing the figure, Ruskin had conferred on it a kind of immortality. The monstrous, inoffensive little figure was to be resurrected from that death which seems more absolute than others, that disappearance into the midst of an infinite number made anonymous I was touched to rediscover it there; nothing then dies of what has once lived, the sculptors thought any more than that of Ruskin. Proust calls the figure poor little monster your poor face, that I would never have noticed but somehow he finds a sense of resurrection here in this smallest figure, framing a tiny quatrefoil, resurrected in its form, gazing at us with the same gaze that seems to fit inside no more than a millimeter of stone. The fellow is vexed and puzzled in his malice; and his hand is pressed hard on his cheek bone, and the flesh of the cheek is wrinkled under the eye by the pressure. The whole indeed looks wretchedly coarse. But considering it as a mere filling of an interstice on the outside of a cathedral gate. It proves very noble vitality in the art of the time

Proust devoted nine years to translating Ruskin, who had a profound influence on his development as a writer, especially in his conception of artist as interpreter and his belief that beauty resided in the simplest of objects [in] the most beloved sights that you see every summer evening along thousands of footpaths, the streams of water on the hillsides. Of your old, familiar countryside.

Proust understood the world through painting and music as well as literature and if you are not ready to read the novel itself there are many delightful windows on his world. Anka Muhlsteins book is one, another is Paintings in Proust by Eric Karpeles, a collection of all the paintings that figure in the novel, fine color reproductions appearing alongside the relevant texts. It is a feast of a book whether you are already familiar with the novel or a newcomer to its treasures.

As John Ruskin wrote in The Bible of Amiens, The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and to tell what it saw in a plain way. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one

This, as we have already seen, became Prousts credo in his writing. More than 300 years earlier, far removed from the worlds of both Ruskin and Proust, in an obscure English country parish, the poet/priest George Herbert wrote these lines in a plea for the soul to honor God by telling what it saw in a plain way.

Who says that fictions onely and false hair

Become a verse? Is there no truth in beautie?

Is all good structure in a winding stair?

May no lines passe, except they do their dutie

Not to a true, but painted chair?

Must all be vaild, while he that reades, divines,

Catching the sense at two removes?

Perhaps we can leave all three of these gifted and visionary minds on the same page and share in A glancing happiness?

Belinda de Kay is the emeritus director of Stonington Free Library.

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Book Notes: In search of Proust, finding Ruskin, poets, poems and art - theday.com