Category: Microposts
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Currently reading: The Regulators by Richard Bachman 📚
Finished reading: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 📚
I had an idea that this was a story about the trials of an orphan in Dickensian London. It was about that, but so much more. This novel has warmth and sadness and joy and despair. Characters that will stick with me for a long, long time. I’m reluctant to part with them to be honest. Dickens truly was a one-of-a-kind master storyteller. ★★★★★
Currently reading: The Age of Reason Begins by Will Durant 📚
One of the great diseases of this age is the multitude of books that doth so overcharge the world that it is not able to digest the abundance of idle matter that is every day hatched and brought into the world.
Barnaby Rich, known primarily for his Elizabethan short stories, wrote this in the year 1600. I wonder what Barnaby would think of our always-connected and ever-distracted present day?
Currently reading: The Age of Reason Begins by Will Durant 📚
I took a short break in my marathon read of the 11-volume Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant. Back at it with Volume VII.
Reading a Book in 15 Minutes
Interesting and humorous article by Anthony Lane in the New Yorker about the book summary app Blinkist: Can You Read a Book in a Quarter of an Hour?. We’re reading fewer books as a society. Our ever-fascinating smart phones aren’t helping the cause:
The most potent enemy of reading, it goes without saying, is the small, flat box that you carry in your pocket. In terms of addictive properties, it might as well be stuffed with meth.
— Anthony Lane
I’m a fan of watching the TED Talk before I decide to tackle a non-fiction book, but reading a 20-minute book summary of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time? No, no, no, no.
Finished reading: 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff 📚
I know I’ve read this a long time ago, but it was nice to be reacquainted with Helene, the zany book-loving American, and Mr. Frank Doel, the reserved British bookseller. The abrupt ending catches you off guard, but it’s also perfect. ★★★★☆
The Booksellers documentary is so, so good. All the bookshelves, rare books, home libraries … and so many kindred spirits talking about their love of books. The whole documentary is beautiful and a little melancholy. Booksellers and librarians are my favorite people. Watch it on Amazon Prime.
Finished reading: Stories of Books and Libraries by Jane Holloway (ed.) 📚
A book of short stories, excerpts and essays about the love of reading and libraries? Of course I’m going to love it. A good father’s day gift for a dad who loves books. ★★★★★
David Copperfield and the Magic of Amazon WhisperSync
I’m currently reading the classic David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 📚 for the first time. I’m reading it on my Kindle with an add-on $3 splurge of the Audible audiobook. I experimented with WhisperSync many years ago when it was first released and found it buggy. For such a low fee, I thought I would give it another try.
I went from reading last night on my Kindle to listening this morning in the car, to reading again in a waiting room, to listening once more as I did chores. Never once did I lose my place.
I have a love-hate relationship with ebooks and Amazon, but wow — what an immersive, magical reading/listening experience. How did I not know this worked as well as it does?
Currently reading: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 📚
Finished reading: The Death of Grass by John Christopher 📚
A short 1950s SciFi novel about a virus that kills grasses. Starvation and violence breaks out. Governments fall. Civilization crumbles. Except for the very dated portrayal of women, the story felt current. ★★★★☆
Finished reading: The Reformation by Will Durant 📚
Currently reading: The Death of Grass by John Christopher 📚
Finished reading: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 📚
An absolute masterpiece. Totally gutted by the end. I can’t believe it took me this long to read it. ★★★★★
Finished reading: Sibley’s Birding Basics by David Allen Sibley 📚
Ah, the inevitable slide into birdwatching. Great introductory guide to help me get started. ★★★★☆
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 28: Community
Of all the communities I’ve been a part of - industry leader, islander, 55+ retirement living - liveaboard boat life was the most incredible. We all had a little extra salt water in our veins that compelled us to a life afloat. Good times.
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 27: Surprise
My all-time favorite Surprise. In fact, all twenty volumes of this Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian are wonderful. I am perpetually rereading them. I think I’m on my fourth circumnavigation after my first voyage some 20 years ago.
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 25: Spine
The spine of this tattered old book tells a story of how loved it is. I must have read these stories a dozen times over the past thirty years. Scribbles and underlines and exclamation marks scattered throughout. A life in marginalia.
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 24: Light
Is there anything more mesmerizing than the shifting light and shapes of a campfire under a blanket of stars?
Currently reading: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 📚
Finished reading: The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin 📚
Characters who love books and reading, lots of fun literary references, a bookstore set on an island … this one could have been written just for me. ★★★★☆