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Finished reading: Holly by Stephen King 📚
The Private Library by Reid Byers
Finished reading: The Private Library by Reid Byers 📚
Book-wrapt — that beneficient feeling of being wholly imbooked, beshelved, inlibriated, circumvolumed, peribibliated … it implies the traditional library wrapped in shelves of books, and the condition of rapt attention to a particular volume, and the rapture of of being transported to the wood beyond the world.
… and
Entering our library should feel like easing into a hot tub, strolling into a magic store, emerging into the orchestra pit, or entering a chamber of curiosities, the club, the circus, our cabin on an outbound yacht, the house of an old friend. It is a setting forth, and it is a coming back to center. Borges, of course, thought it was entering Paradise.
Sometimes a book feels like it was written just for you. May we all find ourselves Book-wrapt this holiday season. ★★★★★
Currently reading: Holly by Stephen King 📚
Finished reading: Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark 📚
A slow read over the course of a few months, one chapter/writing tool per sitting. Lots of great tips and advice to improve your writing.
Finished reading: The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan W. Watts 📚
Another compelling argument for being present in our lives, and paying close attention to the marvels that surround us.
How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such a fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself as anything less than a god?
Currently reading: Wednesday’s Child by Yiyun Li 📚
Finished reading: The Vagabond’s Way by Rolf Potts 📚
Stephen King
Finished reading: Christine and Blaze by Stephen King 📚
Continuing my quest to read the Stephen King books I missed along the way. With these two, I’ve now read thirteen King books this year. The 700-page Christine book flew by on my Kindle. Lots of supernatural fun mixed in with nostalgia for my late 1970s youth. I’m tempted now to watch the movie, which I somehow also missed.
I listened to the audiobook version of Blaze on long walks through the Arizona desert. I enjoyed the story with just a hint of the otherworldly, feeling sorry for the misunderstood and troubled Blaze.
Right now, I have just fifteen more books to go, until this prolific author publishes his next one. It feels a little like walking up the down escalator. But what a great problem to have.
The Age of Faith by Will Durant
Finished reading: The Age of Faith by Will Durant 📚
I finished this fourth installment of Will Durant’s Story of Civilization after three months of slow, careful reading. The Age of Faith begins with the fall of Rome and carries through the end of the Middle Ages. The writing is clear, colorful, engaging, often horrifying, and occasionally laugh-out-loud hilarious. Along the way, I encountered kings and popes, treachery and atrocities, saints and philosophers, economic systems, the building of cathedrals and castles, and primers on the great works of literature and philosophy across a thousand years of recorded time.
I’ve come to cherish these nighttime hours I spend with Professor Durant. I am pacing myself to read just twenty or thirty pages per night. I keep an iPad nearby for searches on historical figures or glimpses of the landmarks and architecture he paints with his words. A favorite moment during the book was playing an album of Ambrosian Chants (Apple Music Link) that, according to Durant, mesmerized the faithful within the already awe-inspiring gothic cathedrals of the 13th century. Between Durant’s descriptions and the music, I felt utterly transported.
There have been more than a few times when my jaw dropped open in sheer disbelief at what I’ve read; shocked not only by the crazy shit that took place during these dark times of our history, but that it took so many years for me to learn all of this. To quote Durant: “Education is the progressive discovery of our ignorance.” I am getting quite the education.
I’m moving on to the next volume on the Italian Renaissance as part of a slow but steady read through all eleven volumes of this incredible body of work. What a journey this has become.
Finished reading: Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross 📚
Your Brain on Art is the latest selection from the Next Big Idea Club. The authors did a nice job of gathering scientific evidence of how art making and appreciation physically changes your brain. I loved the part where a scientist discovered that different sound waves can alter the shape and appearance of our heart cells. Lots of good science-based tips on how to flourish by incorporating art in your everyday life. For me, I’m planning to spend more time really listening (and dancing!) to new music, not just having it on in the background. ★★★★
Finished reading: The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now by Thich Nhat Hanh 📚
Impermanence is something wonderful. If things were not impermanent, life would not be possible. A seed could never become a plant of corn; the child couldn’t grow into a young adult; there could never be healing and transformation; we could never realize our dreams.
Sometimes the universe sends you exactly the book you most needed to read. What a clear-eyed and compelling manifesto of living your best life right now. ★★★★★
Currently reading: The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now by Thich Nhat Hanh 📚
Finished reading: The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King 📚
Continuing my quest to go back and read the Stephen King books I’ve missed along the way. I listened to the audiobook of this one, narrated by actor Bronson Pinchot. I’ve listened to hundreds of audiobooks, but the narration of the ending of this story was one of the most incredible I’ve ever had the pleasure to hear. Bravo! ★★★★
Finished reading: The Silentiary by Antonio Di Benedetto 📚
What a strange little book. The narrator is slowly driven insane by all the commercial sounds encroaching on his family home: an auto repair shop next door, a nightclub across the street, an idling bus outside his bedroom window, all told in disjointed Kafka-like stream of consciousness. Made me appreciate the relative quiet I enjoy here at home. ★★★
Started reading: Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen 📚
Enjoying a pint of Athletic Brewing non-alcoholic beer tonight. I gave up alcohol a few years ago, but still enjoy great beer thanks to this wonderful brewer. I subscribe to their monthly club, which gives me a sample of their pilot beers - this month’s Oregon Strata Web Hop IPA is terrific. 🍻
Finished reading: Skeleton Crew by Stephen King 📚
Working through the few books of Stephen King I haven’t read. This is a collection of his early stories. A few are dated, and a few are exceptional. There is a bleakness that pervades many of these stories. I hoped for a good outcome for the protagonist against all odds, but I was seldom rewarded. Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut and The Raft were my favorites. ★★★★
Replace “book” with “blog” and you’ve captured what makes a community like Micro.blog so special:
Even the oddest, most particular book was written with that kind of crazy courage—the writer’s belief that someone would find his or her book important to read. I was struck by how precious and foolish and brave that belief is, and how necessary, and how full of hope it is to collect these books and manuscripts and preserve them. It declares that all these stories matter, and so does every effort to create something that connects us to one another.
Fascinating article in The Economist this week about the effort underway by computer scientists to use machine language models and a particle accelerator (!) to decipher the petrified remains of 500 scrolls from a Roman library buried in the Vesuvius eruption. The impact on classical studies and history would be mind-boggling if it becomes possible to virtually unroll and read these lost scrolls.
The Economist article sits behind a paywall, but this website details the project (and the prize money involved!).
🍿Went to see Killers of the Flower Moon last night. Parts of the movie were extraordinary. Such a sad, sad story. But gosh, the 3 1/2 hour length was too long. With better editing, this could have been a 2 1/2 hour movie that held me on the edge of my seat.
Currently reading: Skeleton Crew by Stephen King 📚
Working my way through the backlog of Stephen King books I haven’t read (I’ve read over 50 of his books!?!). What a gifted and prolific storyteller he is!
Getting some culture today at the Phoenix Art Museum. Since moving to the area last December, we try to see something new each week on what we call our Adventure Thursdays (and eat: lunch at Welcome Diner was delicious).
Any Phoenicians here with recommendations on places we should visit?
The first lesson of philosophy is that we cannot be wise about everything. We are fragments in infinity and moments in eternity; for such forked atoms to describe the universe, or the Supreme Being, must make the planets tremble with mirth.
Will Durant, The Story of Civilization Volume III: Caesar and Christ
Finished reading: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride 📚
A good premise perhaps weakened by too many characters and side stories. The depression era setting, poor living conditions, and the horrors of racism and cruel treatment of people with disabilities felt Dickensian. McBride held my attention by the end, but a good editor might have helped maintain it all the way through. ★★★