Book Review

Since I'm on vacation this week, I actually have time to read a book...in its entirety....in only a few days!  I love vacation!

My first book for this vacation was Manalive by G.K.Chesterton.  It was...interesting.  Thought-provoking.   Strange, in an interesting and though-provoking sort of way.  Chesterton was an amazing author and thinker.  In this fictional book, he manages to bring forth thoughts, ideas and convictions about how we live our lives (or should live our lives) all under the pretext of a made-up story.  Pretty much, the whole of the book can be summed up in one quote from it-

"His principle can be quite simply stated: he refuses to die while he is still alive."

 I'm really not going to share much more about the book, except to encourage you to read it.

This Should Be Perfect

Nothing like a comic novel  about murder, bigamy, burglary, insanity and truth, beauty and the goodness of life to entertain me on vacation!

This should be good!

Am I The Only One

I know all about movie trailers, in that I've seen hundreds of them at my children's requests.  The trailers come out a year or so before the film ever hits the screen, and the anticipation mounts to a feverish level by the release date.  I like movie trailers.

Today, I got a notification about a trailer for a band's new album.  I guess I didn't realize that trailers were now made for albums.  I'm cool with that, especially for bands I really like (Dawes, in this case).  It was fun to hear some previews of the songs that will be on the album.

The ones that really puzzle me are the trailers for BOOKS.  Videos getting you excited about the release dates of books just strike me as, well, odd.  Does anyone else find this weird, or is it just me?

Just One More

I know I'm probably boring some of you to tears while I'm on this literary bent, but I need to post just this one last quote from the Chesterton book I'm reading.  It is a follow-up to the quote in the last Chesterton post about coming out of your cave walking on your hands.  Here we go...

If a man saw the world upside down, with all the trees and towers hanging head downwards as in a pool, one effect would be to emphasize the idea of dependence. There is a Latin and literal connection; for the very word dependence only means hanging. It would make vivid the Scriptural text which says that God has hung the world upon nothing. If Saint Francis had seen, in one of his strange dreams, the town of Assisi upside down, it need not have differed in a single detail from itself except in being entirely the other way round. But the point is this: that whereas to the normal eye the large masonry of its walls or the massive foundations of its watchtowers and its high citadel would make it seem safer and more permanent, the moment it was turned over the very same weight would make it seem more helpless and more in peril. It is but a symbol; but it happens to fit the psychological fact. Saint Francis might love his little town as much as before, or more than before; but the nature of the love would be altered even in being increased. He might see and love every tile on the steep roofs or every bird on the battlements; but he would see them all in a new and divine light of eternal danger and dependence. Instead of being merely proud of his strong city because it could not be moved, he would be thankful to God Almighty that it had not been dropped; he would be thankful to God for not dropping the whole cosmos like a vast crystal to be shattered into falling stars.

Or another way to say it...

"So come out of your cave walking on your hands
And see the world hanging upside down
You can understand dependence
When you know the maker's land" - The Cave, Mumford & Sons

Lots of love to go around, folks!
I love Chesterton.  I love Mumford & Sons.  And now I love St. Francis.  Because they all make me love God so much more. 

Good Stuff

Feeling literary again tonight!  Must be the cold weather, or something, bringing out the intellectual in me.  Tonight I began delving into G.K. Chesterton's St. Francis of Assisi, primarily to look for this quote -

The man who went into the cave was not the man who came out again; in that sense he was almost as different as if he were dead, as if he were a ghost or a blessed spirit.  And the effects of this on his attitude towards the actual world were really as extravagant as any parallel can make them.  He looked at the world as differently from other men as if he had come out of that dark hole walking on his hands.

Some of you know WHY I was looking for that quote, for the rest of you, well, I'll just leave you wondering, as that is not the point of this post.

The point is, I then began reading the essay from the beginning and quickly became enthralled by things like this -

 The first fact to realize about St. Francis is involved in the first fact with which his story starts; that when he said from the first that he was a Troubadour, and said later that he was a Troubadour of a newer and nobler romance, he was not using a mere metaphor, but understood himself much better than the scholars understand him.  He was, to the last agonies of asceticism, a Troubadour.  He was a Lover.  He was a lover of God and he was really and truly a lover of men; possibly a much rarer mystical vocation.

But as St. Francis did not love humanity but men, so he did not love Christianity but Christ.

Wow!  I love that!  LOVE IT!  A bit later it goes on -

to this great mystic his religion was not a thing like a theory but a thing like a love-affair. 

Oh, how I want that to be what my religion is!!!!!

Now, I must keep reading.  According to my Kindle I am only 8% through this, and I'm already riveted.

Some Light Reading

Deviating from my preferred reading tonight, I have chosen to read a little Plato, specifically The Republic.   Years ago, Chris found a list on-line of 100 Great Books that everyone should read.  Sad to say, I had never read most of them.  Slowly, I have been working my way through the list, but I usually give most of my attention to the fictional works on the list.

I just found the list again today, and that has spurred me on to try reading a bit of Plato.  I am finding it quite thought provoking...go figure!  Considering the public inauguration tomorrow, I will share a few of Plato's thoughts on government with you all.

Yes, my friend, I said; and there lies the point.  You must contrive for your future rulers another and a better life than that of a ruler, and then you may have a well-ordered State; for only in the State which offers this, will they rule who are truly rich, not in silver and gold but in virtue and wisdom, which are the true blessings of life.  Whereas if they go to the administration of public affairs, poor and hungering after their own private advantage, thinking that hence they are to snatch the chief good, order there can never be; for they will be fighting about office, and the civil and domestic broils which thus arise will be the ruin of the rulers themselves and of the whole State.

Now there's something to think about tomorrow as we watch the inauguration.

*** There is also a list of 1000 Good Books that are well worth reading****

This...

This is one off the funniest gifts I've ever gotten (actually, the kids got it, but I "borrowed" it).

Yes, indeed, it's the Old Testament done with Legos!  It is positively hysterical!  

Book Recommendation

I just finished a book that Evan told me I must read. Having completed it, I must agree, it was a good read. So, if you are looking for an interesting fictional read this summer, may I recommend to you The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss?

The only downside to the book is that it's the first book of a trilogy, and the third book has yet to be published. So, I'm moving on to the second book, but then I will have to wait for an unknown amount of time to get the end of the story.

Book Recommendation

Never before have I recommended a book before finishing it, but there's a first time for everything.  So without further adieu, I recommend to you The Count of Monte Cristo, the classic by Alexandre Dumas.  I''m not very far into it yet, but already I can't put it down.  Chris & Evan both assured me that it was one of the best books EVER.  I think they were right.

It's not a short book, but it's not terribly difficult either.  So, if you're looking for a good book to curl up with on the cold winter nights, this would be it.

And Now For Something Decidedly Different

I finished Rob Roy the other night and I've decided to read something completely different than the 100+ year old fiction that I normally devour.  I've decided to read a newer (2006) non-fiction book called Crunchy Cons by Rob Dreher.  I'm not very far into the book (intro & first chapter), but I think I' am ready to declare myself a "Crunchy Con."  The conservative part should come as no surprise to anyone close to me, and for that matter, neither should the crunchy part :-)

Being disaffected with the Republican party for some time now, I find this book a breath of fresh air.  The realization that there are, indeed, other people who have similar beliefs to mine.

Don't worry, Mom & Dad, I will loan it to you when I'm done.  (wink)  I think you would find it less painful than you think...teehee...

Book Club

Evan's in a book club, Nina's starting a book club and, finally, it's my turn.  Tonight is the first meeting of our new book club, consisting of my mom, my sister Deb, My sister-in-law Joy and my niece Colleen.

We are discussing My Antonia by Willa Cather while eating Bohemian food and getting henna tattoos.  Sounds like fun to me!

Finished My Book

Just finished the book I was reading....you all know what that means....I'm looking for new ideas for books to read :-)

I think it's time for a classic again, any recommendations??? Btw, I'm kind of in a melancholy mood (I think it's the days and days of rain we're having), so keep that in mind when making suggestions.

New Book???

You all haven't let me down yet, so now I come to you to guide me to the next book I should read....

Let's see, the last one I completed was Jewel, so now I am due to read a classic. Any recommendations??

Middlemarch

I finally finished it and, Jen, you were right, it was worth it. What a wonderful book about human nature, desires, goals, perceptions, motivations and relationships. Wow, it gave me a lot to think about! I highly recommend it to anyone who has a little time on their hands for entertaining and enriching reading. I was thinking about this book this morning and it occurred to me how well-written fiction books can drive home truth so much better than some non-fiction books.

Anyway, Middlemarch has, in my opinion, one of the best last sentences I've ever read in a book, so I will share it with you, my blog readers, to ponder as well...

But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

Wow! On our trip to PA we drove by many very old cemeteries, and it strikes me now that those grave markers mark the lives that shaped this country as much or more so than the often visited markers at Gettysburg.

Thanks again, Jen, for the recommendation. Now I'm off to read Jewel, which was recommended by another faithful blog-reader :-)

Who Knew?

Evan is reading Upton Sinclair's The Jungle for history. While reading he stumbled across this interesting quote: ***Warning:I laughed so hard that I cried and split open my still healing lip while reading this.***

"I have hardly mentioned the positive economies of cooperation. Allowing five to a family, there are fifteen million families in this country; and at least ten million of these live separately, the domestic drudge being either the wife or a wage-slave. Now set aside the modern system of pneumatic house-cleaning, and the economies of cooperative cooking; and consider one single item, the washing of dishes. Surely it is moderate to say that the dish-washing for a family of five takes half an hour a day; with ten hours as a day's work, it takes, therefore, half a million able bodied persons-mostly women- to do the dish-washing of the country. And note that his is most filthy and deadening and brutalizing work; that it is a cause of anemia, nervousness, ugliness and ill-temper; of prostitution, suicide, and insanity; of drunken husbands and degenerate children- for all of which things the community has naturally to pay."

Well, if you were EVER looking for an excuse to get out of doing the dishes here are twelve good ones - you wouldn't want to be driven into prostitution or insanity now would you?

Now For Something Completely Different

My string of books lately has been interesting. The depressing thread started with Cold Mountain (which was strange and depressing - sorry, Jen), continued with Cry, the Beloved Country (which I loved, but sobbed through) and ended with A Brave New World (which was just plain weird and depressing, and I don't recommend). So, I moved on to a nonfiction book called No Ordinary Child. That one I could write a whole dissertation on, but I won't. I've never made so many notes in a book - mostly disagreeing with certain points in the book.

Anyway, I've decided to move on to something completely different - Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian. I figure a good seafaring story should cheer me up nicely. Evan assures me that it's funny, but he won 't let me start reading it until he's done with it :(

As a side note - isn't it cool that I learned how to underline? HTML is kind of like learning a foreign language!

Well, That Was Depressing

I just finished reading Cold Mountain.  Jen, you did not tell me it was a depressing book!  Not that I didn't enjoy it, I did.  It just was pretty sad and dark and depressing throughout and then the ending, well, I can't talk about the ending in case some of you readers haven't read it yet.

So, now I've decided to read Cry, the Beloved Country.  Hey, as long as I'm in the depressing book mode, I might as well keep at it.