Book-love
>> Saturday, July 30, 2011 –
Books,
Happiness,
Photography
My favorite used bookstore had a sale today. I walked away with all these books for only $10.
Happiness indeed, my friends.
Read more...
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Epic Reading List (Literally)
Finishing Milton
Epics! I received my fall semester reading list for Torrey sometime in June, and after scanning the book list, I couldn't stop smiling. I love, love these books. I thought of reading them during the summer, but quickly discarded the thought. I had already read them, so maybe this summer should be for non-Torrey books. But then I thought a little more. My amazing literature teacher, Mr. Callihan, always asked us to read, at the very least, portions of these books aloud. These books were meant to be read aloud. They are poetry. College schedules probably don't leave too much time for slowly reading through the books. (I think.) So, I made a summer goal: to read through all the epics out loud.Last week, I finished the last epic, Milton's Paradise Regained. It was such delightful summer reading project.
May Book Love, I
>> Saturday, May 29, 2010 –
Books
May 1-7
"Rejoicing with the morning stars that Thou art our God and we Thy children. Make strong and wild this secret song within until it bursts forth at last to thy glory and our saying."
The Hungering Dark
"Was not everything, after all, like this bewildering woodland, this dance of dark and light? Everything only a glimpse, the glimpse always unforeseen."
The Man Who Was Thursday
"Don't believe the newspaper reports. Juliet was not arrested and taken away in handcuffs . . . She DID throw a teapot at Gilly Gilbert's head."
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
May 8-14
"There isn't anyone out there who isn't Seymour's Fat Lady... Don't you know that secret yet? And don't you know- listen to me, now - don't you know who that Fat Lady really is?. . . Ah, buddy. Ah, buddy. It's Christ Himself. Christ Himself, buddy."
Franny and Zooey
"Using words to talk of words is like using a pencil to draw a picture of itself, on itself. Impossible. Confusing. Frustrating." He lifted his hands high above his head as if stretching for the sky. "But there are other ways to understanding!" he shouted, laughing like a child. He threw both arms to the cloudless arch of sky above us still laughing. "Look!" he shouted tilting his head back. "Blue! Blue! Blue!"
The Name of the Wind
And we need reminding of what time can do, must only do; churn out enormity at random and beat it, with God's blessing, into our heads: that we are created, created, sojourners in a land we did not make, a land with no meaning of itself and no meaning we can make for it alone. Who are we to demand explanations of God. (And what monsters of perfection should we be if we did not?) We forget ourselves, picnicking; we forget where we are. There is no such thing as a freak accident. "God is at Home," says Meister Eckhart, "We are in the far country."
Holy the Firm
May 15-16
No quotes here, just some beautiful books with one of the most vulnerable, human, and absolutely wonderful protagonists in modern fantasy literature. The first book doesn't really hold a candle to the its sequels, but it's still good.
----
I know some of these quotes may not make sense taken out of context, but these books deserve to be read from cover to cover. Some turned my world upside-down (notably, The Man Who Was Thursday and Franny and Zooey), and others came very close to it. I loved them all. So far, May has been a delightful month of reading.
What Happens on Break
Challenge for Thanksgiving Break: Read all of Shannon Hale's books.
Outcome: A very happy girl.
(And a completed challenge!)
Shannon Hale has absolutely delightful stories, she makes me laugh out loud and smile. A lot. I highly recommend her books - especially Enna Burning and Book of a Thousand Days. And the Actor and the Housewife is fun also. And The Goose Girl. And, well, I really like them all.
Two fun quotes :)
"I don't know how you persist in being so stubborn."
"It's a superpower. I was bitten by a radioactive mule."
- The Actor and the Housewife
"Jane sat beside Colonel Andrew. He had a dashing smile. It nearly dashed right off his face."
- Austenland
Read more...
Lamott On Writing and Books
On Writing
Writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs: our need to be visible, to be heard, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up grow and belong.
As a writer [...] hope begins in the the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.
I just try to warn people who hope to get published that publication is not all that it is craked up to be. But writing is. Writins has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises. That thing you had to force yourself to do - the actual act of writing - turns out to be the best part. [...] The act of writing turns out to be its own reward.
On Books
For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What amiracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we arer and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird Read more...
Daily Reads
You cannot surely forbid the Truth to reach your ears by the secret pathway of a noiseless book.TertullianEvery year I have some sort of general reading plan. Last year was Joy's 100 books-in-a-year along with my Great Books literature and Gibbon classes. Two years ago, I tried to keep my readings to Victorian and Medieval literature. This year, I'm taking a more day by day approach. I still have my ever-growing booklist, but I've joined a few book groups that I hope to keep with throughout this year.Company of the Fathers
Two years ago, I joined this reading group that Mr. Callihan started. Our goal was (and is still) to read through the 38-volume Early Church Fathers set, and we've started back again (!!). We're going through Tertullian's Apology right now, and wow. He's amazing. I added the link to the blog on my sidebar.
New Albion Book Club
Mr. Jenson invited me to this group - and guess what book we're going to read? Witch Wood! It's one of my favorite Buchan books, and I'm looking forward to the discussions.
History of the Christian Church
For my Schola class, we're reading through Schaff's 8-volume History of the Christian Church. It's beyond wonderful. Because I've been so ill for the past few months, I normally had a "Schaff" day, where I would catch up on my readings, but I'm hoping to have read Schaff daily this year.
De Gestis Herwardis Saxonis
In an attempt to keep up my Latin, I've been reading this reallly fun Medieval work every day. I tried to keep up a corresponding notebook with an English translation, but that ruins the fun of reading it in the original Latin. I love reading it :-)
Tertullian, Buchan, Schaff, and Medieval Latin... this is going to be a delightful year.
Happy. Wonderfully happy.
Michael Buble music on blast. Repeating Everything and Save the Last Dance lots and lots of times. There's a beautiful California sunset right outside, I can see it clearly through our glass doors. Brilliant purples, oranges, and blues, pure beauty. I'm dancing cha-cha and salsa with myself, laughing and remembering the last time I heard Buble and danced. In Oklahoma, for the Summer Academy, with my best friends. And suddenly I am filled with joy, pure, absolute joy.
There's only one rather incongruent fact about this whole scenario. I just had surgery. Four surgeries, actually. One on Wednesday, big deeeeep cut on my side, and then three today - one on my leg, one on my arm, and lots of needles and cauterizations on my head. But I think dancing and (light) bouncing is the perfect medication, heh. I'm not on any pain meds (per my request), so the music keeps my mind off the pain.
Mind over matter.
(Guess the quote. *smiles happily*)
I've also been immersed in some of my favorite books. Lord Peter, Schaff, Narnia, Ideas Have Consequences. Thus, I'm "drunk on words", to use that wonderful quote. It's just one of those days, one of those glorious, amazing days.
Praise God for His goodness.
Addendum: Here are some pictures from my latest photoshoot with my sisters :)
S'wonderful...
>> Saturday, July 5, 2008 –
Books
My little brother tugged my hand, “Let’s go upstairs! Upstairs!”
I followed him, but the newly filled used bookshelves caught my eye. 25 cents for a paperback, 50 for hardcovers, you can’t find a better price. Title by title passed by roving eye. No, I’m not interested in learning science of love, or how to find the perfect couch, or the phrenology of apes. By the time I had reached the last bookshelf, I had a difficult time trying to keep my laughter silent. Then two books, side by side, arrested my attention.
Hardcovers, brand new condition.
I could smell the newness, the pages felt crisp, clean between my excited fingers.
And the titles?
John Montgomery Boice/Philip Ryken’s The Doctrines of Grace, a crème hardcover, it *felt * good. And John Julius Norwich’s Shakespeare’s Kings, with a Medieval picture of Edward the II on the dustcover.
I went, well rather bounced, up the two flights of stairs to the children’s section. Narrowly missing some innocent children in my enthusiasm.
“Daddy! Daddy!”
The librarian at the desk just looked up and smiled recognition at me, she probably has built an immunity to my book-joys, along with the other librarians. I found Daddy sitting down, answering MichaelAngelo’s billionth question about the origin of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. His glance at me was one of relief, “Found anything?”
Jubilant words tumbled out, instead of trying to understand me, Daddy wisely just took the books from my open hand and inspected them. He had a big smile, “Good books.” I was looking more for a, “Here’s a dollar.” So, I waited for a few seconds, and Daddy told me that he didn’t have any cash on him. Not even one dollar (the cost for both books).
I rechecked my pockets. Of course, nothing but my Pocket History of the Church: a treasure unto itself… but still, not a dollar.
Daddy flipped through the pages of The Doctrines of Grace. And we grinned at each other.
From the middle of the book, a dollar tumbled out. Just the right amount for both books.
Now, they are both at my bedside, beautiful books. :) S’wonderful...
A Very Happy Bibliophile/Student
Ten books. All for $4.70. All in great condition. Thrift-stores are my love.
A hardcover of Mere Christianity, All This Wise And Wonderful, and The Prose Edda, among others.
College classes have started - Intro to Theatre Arts, Philosophy, and History of the World. Sophocles, Socrates, and Shakespeare for school? OH YES!
Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Spanish, Literature (Dickens!), Roman Empire (Gibbon!), and dance all start next week.
It all adds up to one very happy girl.
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