Reading Notes

I'm not good at reading more than one book at a time, not counting audiobooks. But I've got a couple going that can truly only be digested in small servings.

I can only concentrate on The Faerie Queene for a Canto at a time. I finished Book One, Canto Four last night. There was a wonderful series of verses when the Red Cross Knight is at the House of Pride and meets the queen, Lucifera. There is a parade of her advisers -- Idleness, Gluttony, Lechery, Avarice, Envy and Wrath. The descriptions are as fantastic as they are grotesque. I loved it!

The other brain twister I'm working my way through is How to Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization by Mortimer J. Adler. He has chosen a number of topics to be found by studying The Great Books, and waxes philosophical on them. Philosophy is not a forte of mine, but he makes a lot of observations that I like to spend a bit of time mulling over after I finish the chapter. With titles like "How To Think About Freedom", "How To Think About Learning", "How To Think About Art", and a couple dozen more, you can see there is a lot of fodder there for contemplation.

My fun book between all of this is Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, which I haven't gotten too far in, but I love his writing. It's mesmerizing even when there's nothing going on!

Happy Reading, Everyone!

2009 Chunkster Challenge

Here is one I was waiting for! There are a number of choices for participation this year, and I'm going for the wimpy one. I don't have too many Chunksters about the house, and I tend to shy away from the few I have even though they are wonderful books. I want to make sure I get at least a couple of them read this year. Therefore, I am going for The Chubby Chunkster level, which only requires two books of over 450 pages. I can do that!

Completed: 2/2 as of April 10, 2009 **COMPLETED**

1. The Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Hollis Robbins
2. Revelation by C.J. Sansom

For rules and sign-up, click here. And thanks to Dana for hosting again this year!

A Lovely Award!

The fabulous Michele from A Reader's Respite gave me this pretty award! I'm suprised, since the last one she gave me I never followed through on. (Sorry, Michele! I'm so bad with these.) So, I'm going to get this one passed on right away!

1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Award up to ten other blogs.
4. Add links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message for your awardees on their blogs.


The Library Ladder for starting the group to finally get me to start reading The Faerie Queene.
Ladytink for stopping by so often and saying hello.
Monniblog for making cool Challenge buttons and sharing her trip to England with us.
Lynne's Little Corner of the World for being a fellow Challenge addict and sharing all the baby panda news.
Reading, Writing and Retirement to celebrate her retirement and for letting me steal her cool Obama buttons during the election. :-)

Visit all of them and say hello!

What Kind of Reader Am I?

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader   You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Book Snob
Literate Good Citizen
Non-Reader
Fad Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

That looks about right. :-)

POEMS FROM GUANTANAMO

Edited by Marc Falkoff



Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak puts a human face on the subject of Guantanamo. I couldn't help but be moved by the words of the detainees, be they hateful, hopeful, angry or inspirational. Just as affecting are the short biographies of each of the poets and how they came to be at the facility. This tiny book most likely will not change most people's personal opinion of Guantanamo, its inmates and America's part in it all, but it will make some people think hard about it in a way they never have before.

THE BOOK OF SAMSON

by David Maine



The Book of Samson is a novelization of the biblical tale of Samson and Delilah told by Samson as he stands blinded and chained in the temple of the Philistine god, Dagon.

This is going to sound strange, but I've read three David Maine books over the last couple years and I still can't decide if I actually like them or not. Bizarre, but true. I am attracted to his unique slants on the biblical stories and overall I like his writing. But there is very black humor, gore and coarse language that will not sit well with some readers. Even I, an extremely forgiving reader, was periodically plunged into uneasiness at the liberal use of the f-word and c-word so casually tossed out by biblical characters. And apparently the Philistines spoke like ill-educated bumpkins.

That being said, I have no doubt I will continue to read this author. I can't give you a reasonable explanation for that. The pros of his work must outweigh the cons in my subconscious.

Lucky Ramya!

Congratulations, Ramya of Ramya's Bookshelf! You're the winner of Lucky Chica! Email me your address and I'll get it off to you right away.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of reading news from me today. I got nothing read yesterday because we were off to the Timberwolves game right after I got off work. (Wolves won, Wolves won!! Yippee!!!) Today I'll be settling in with Book One, Canto Two of The Faerie Queene, and hopefully finishing up The Book of Samson. I don't know if any of you have read any of David Maine's biblical retellings, but they are . . . different. More on that later. :-)

Happy Reading!

Let The Reading Begin!

I've decided not to set any specific goals beyond the Challenges I've signed up for in 2009. I want to see where reading takes me this year if I just let it wander as it may. And the only general "goal" I have is to read more short stories, essays and poetry.

With that in mind, I read Book One, Canto One of The Faerie Queene last night. Once I got used to the language, it started to flow quite nicely and I really enjoyed it! Not that I won't be depending on my Reading Guide to catch the details, but I'm no longer afraid of it. Peter and I decided that it's not important to understand every word of every line of every verse. We just want to enjoy the experience of reading such a monumental work. I have to say, though, that the scene with the monster Error is pretty nasty. I won't give the gory details, but Peter and I both looked up from our books and said, "Wow. That's disturbing!" :-)

I also took a little trip to the bookstore yesterday afternoon and picked up The Judges by Elie Wiesel and Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak. I bought that particular poetry book not because I expect stunning poetry, but when I thumbed through it, the raw emotion on the pages was gutwrenching. True, I did not always like what it had to say, but I felt the need to take it home with me and make some time to listen. I will most likely read it this weekend. I also ordered Dawn and Day by Wiesel from Amazon. I read Night a couple years ago and I've wanted to finish out the trilogy for quite some time. Why not now?

Happy Reading, Everyone!