I recently came across this beautiful poem, and it’s too lovely not to share. For those of us who aren’t poets, this poem could just as well be titled “How to go about living.” I hope you like it as much as I do. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ i Make a place to sit down. Sit down. Be quiet. You must depend upon affection, reading, knowledge, skill—more of each than you have—inspiration, work, growing older, patience, for patience joins time to eternity. Any readers who like your poems, doubt their judgment. ii Breathe with unconditional breath the unconditioned air. Shun electric wire. Communicate [...] Read more »
Congratulations to our book giveaway winner!
And the autographed copy of Jennifer Trafton’s The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic goes to…………(wait for it)………..Ann from Nevada!! Woo-hoo! Ann, your signed copy of Ms. Trafton’s debut novel is on its way straight to you from the Rabbit Room. For others wishing to purchase their own copies of this wonderful novel, I provided Amazon links at the end of my interview post with the author here, but for anyone who wants to buy an autographed copy, the Rabbit Room is providing signed copies of Ms. Trafton’s novel. Thanks for all the participation, everyone! Apparently a lot of you [...] Read more »
Interview with First-Time Author Jennifer Trafton
I am as giddy as a small child to introduce first-time author Jennifer Trafton, a friend of mine from grad school and the recently-published writer of the children’s novel The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic. Intended for middle-grade children, it’s also a wonderful read-aloud for the adults in those children’s lives, not to mention a great read for those of us who just love a good story. Jennifer’s debut novel stars the delightful Persimmony Smudge, and, well, let me offer Amazon’s description as a teaser: “Ten-year-old Persimmony Smudge leads (much to her chagrin) a very dull life on the [...] Read more »
The Power of Story
I have wanted to write about this beautiful article for some time. Yet I have found that nothing I can say about it is as powerful as what the author herself has already expressed so perfectly and so completely. I wish this extraordinary manifesto on why author Katherine Paterson reads and writes could hang as a poster in libraries across the United States. But since I can’t see to that, I can at least see to it that everyone who reads this blog has the opportunity to be enriched by her wisdom and passion for reading, justice, and mercy. Her [...] Read more »
Book Review: E. M. Forster’s A Room with a View
Note: I’ll be doing book reviews of classics every two or three weeks for the next several months. I have chosen the Barnes & Noble paperback classics series for several reasons: the prices are among the most affordable available; B&N has completely redone the print typeface for each book (making it easier to read); and an excellent introduction, notes, and follow-up questions written by a literature specialist specifically for each classic have been included. In short, the B&N classics line has the most value for the dollar of any classics book series I’ve seen. My first book review (for this [...] Read more »
(Mostly) Literary Quotes
I love novels because in them you don’t only walk in other people’s shoes—you eavesdrop on their souls~~Katherine Paterson I dive into a story the way I dive into the sea, prepared to splash about and make merry~~E.B. White Only barbarians are not curious about where they come from, how they came to be where they are, where they appear to be going, whether they wish to go there, and if so, why, and if not, why not~~Isaiah Berlin The airlines have finally achieved something they’ve been working on since 1960: they’ve managed to replicate Greyhound bus service~~Linus Beck [Story [...] Read more »
A strange and un-library thing
I do love libraries. I love the books in them. I love the tactile feel of the books—the weight, the height, the size, and the heft of the wrapped and covered words. I love the texture of the plethora of printed matter as it slides under my fingers. I adore the intoxicating mixture of mingled book scents everywhere— of new paper or old binding, of fresh ink or old news. I like the (mostly) quiet, inviting space the library presents to anyone who cares to use it and delight in it. I enjoy watching the wide variety of people—the very [...] Read more »
On Viagra for Plants
Okay. So I am not particularly gifted in the green thumb department. This might partially stem from growing up in the North, where the entire western half of North Dakota contained some of the least-fertile soil you can possibly imagine. The soil was gray, dry clay, tundra-like in all aspects. In fact, as a kid I was completely puzzled by all those erroneous library books I read where children like me would talk about how soil was black. It was not, either! And all my schoolwork said this, too. (I finally made my peace with it all by deciding that [...] Read more »
The “Because Andy’s Right” Book Review (Voltaire’s Candide)
Not long ago, when I blogged about reading the classics, my fellow chorister Andy wrote a very articulate and thoughtful response to my post about why she, too, reads the classics. (You can read her excellent comments here.) Inspired by Andy, I have been trying to squeeze in a book review or two on this blog, but life hasn’t been cooperating. To start with, I apparently thought it was a good idea to try to read classics of 700+ pages during a time period when I was also reading books for 4 or 5 other classes plus 2 competency exams. [...] Read more »
On Books and Reading
All right. So this is going to be a diatribe about books and reading. If you do not 1) like books, and if you do not 2) like reading, it might be best for you to stop reading this now and go watch some TV. For the rest of you, feel free to stay tuned while I go off about this matter. I read the results of a study not long ago that concluded many of us lie on those survey/interest forms asking for things like the titles of our favorite books. We apparently put down not the titles we [...] Read more »