Particulars of My Life by B.F. Skinner (spoilers!!)

I just finished reading book 12 of 2015 called Particulars of My Life by B.F. Skinner . It is 319 pages. On doing the 2015 reading challenge I was able to check off another one on the list as this was written by a man who grew up in the town of Susquehanna as I did. More then half of the book is about the town.

This is an old hardcover book that has been borrowed from the local library more then 95 times. It was copyrighted in 1976. What caught me as funny while reading this is that it was donated to the library and whoever owned it before obviously did not care for Burrhus as she had written not so nice comments along the edges of the pages.

If it weren't for the fact that it had so much interesting information written about the town that I grew up in I would not have liked this book. I don't feel like it was written that well. There are lots of things written in french or other languages and not translated so I have no idea what they say. I felt like most of the book just rambled on and I struggled to stay focused. It leaves off at the end with him going back to college for a second time to study psychology which is how he became famous. I was disappointed it ended like that. I wanted to find out more about what happened to him as he grew up and to his family and friends. I wanted to find out how and when he met his wife.

B.F. Skinners real name is Burrhus Frederick Skinner. Such a strange name until we learn that his mother gave her maiden name as his first name. I know the house where he grew up as I walk by it on my walks to town. I have heard that he is a very distant cousin to me. I know that he is no longer alive but I do not know when he died. He had a younger brother who was very close in age named Ebbe. Not long after the family moved to Scranton PA both boys were in college and Ebbe died.

I found such interesting things in this book. One of the shops in town (my exes friend owns) someone commited suicide in the basement. A very good friend of mines relative from way back was one of Burrhus teachers and was spoken of a lot in the book. There was a cottage in the area called "Linger Longer" and an ice cream place called the "Sugar Bowl".

I have not been able to figure out yet where Beebe's Flats was or what is referred to as Little Italy.

Another interesting thing for me in this book was the mention of Burrhus going to Bread Loaf in Vermont. Another book I read by another local author talked about going to the same place. It was a place for writers to take summer classes.

The most interesting thing I discovered while reading this book was the name of my ex. It wasn't him of course in the book but one of his relatives from way way way back with the same name. He was murdered and Burrhus's father was a lawyer and represented the man who killed him supposedly in self defense.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on February 25, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.