Tuesday, August 16, 2011

this weeks reading

If you're wondering what happened to Sunday's post, well, I deleted it. It was mean and I knew better. But here's something you might like.

Five Blessings of Reading
1. In reading, we experience one of the greatest pleasures human life can afford us; books sweeten, nourish, brighten, and enrich our lives.

2. Books enable us to live more lives than the one allotted and allow us to experience impossible adventures.

3. Books help us to process, order, and understand our personal experience and gain perspectives on others’ lives.

4. Books enable us to see outcomes where we presently only see possibilities; solutions where we presently see only dilemmas; direction where we presently only see impasse.

5. Books allow us an opportunity to learn how to discern the Holy Spirit and respond to its promptings.
--Richard H. Cracroft, BYU Magazine, Summer 2011. p. 55

Yup, yup. Reading is an important way to grow and imho an essential ingredient in developing character.

So I was excited when Chea gave me the assignment to read The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.

Not finished yet, but Chea, you were right.

It is stirring in me the sort of feelings as in Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson.

Yes. Definitely. We will discuss.

But wait. You haven't read Housekeeping? Go read, people. Then visit Professor Hungerford (an online fav of mine!).

She discusses this novel here:
http://academicearth.org/lectures/marilynne-robinson-housekeeping-1

Second part:
http://academicearth.org/lectures/marilynne-robinson-housekeeping-2

Oh, and this month's MoDa selection:
Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister
http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Beginners-Erica-Bauermeister/dp/0399157123

"I think love is kind of like those waves out there," she said. "You ride one in to the beach, and it's the most amazing thing you've ever felt. But at some point the water goes back out; it has to. And maybe you're lucky-maybe you're both too busy to do anything drastic. Maybe you're good as friends, so you stay. And then something happens-maybe it's something as big as a baby, or as small as him unloading the dishwasher-and the wave comes back in again. And it does that, over and over. I just think sometimes people forget to wait."
—Erica Bauermeister (Joy For Beginners)

1 comment:

Devry said...

I loved The Glass Castle. It made me truly grateful for the life my parents gave me. Also, any book that mentions Blythe has to be worth reading.