Posts Tagged ‘reading’
“Let us read with method, and propose to ourselves an end to which our studies may point. The use of reading is to aid us in thinking”*…
Ann Morgan (“londonchoirgirl”) decided to read her way around the globe…
In 2012, the world came to London for the Olympics and I went out to meet it. I read my way around all the globe’s 196 independent countries – plus one extra territory chosen by blog visitors – sampling one book from every nation…
Check out Morgan’s reading list here, then check in on her “Year of Reading Women” and her current project, “If Women Ruled- What if History was Herstory?”
* Edward Gibbon
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As we pack our (book) bags, we might recall that it was on this date in 1915 that Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” was first published (in The Atlantic Monthly).
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
“There are too many books in the world to read in a single lifetime; you have to draw the line somewhere”*…
click here (and again) to enlarge
Via Goodreads.
* Diane Setterfield
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As we dogear the page, we might send avant-garde birthday greetings to Hermann Bahr; he was born on this date in 1863. A journalist, playwright, director, and critic, Bahr helped found Die Zeit (one of Germany’s leading newspapers) and edited Oesterreichische Volkszeitungwas (one of Austria’s). He worked as a director with Max Reinhardt at the Berlin Deutsches Theater and as Dramaturg with the Vienna Burgtheater. And he was the first critic to apply the label “Modernism” to literary works– part of a critical career in which he championed (successively) Naturalism, Romanticism, Expressionism, and Symbolism.
“There is no frigate like a book”*…
This striking portrait of a Thai woman lost in her book is one of an extraordinary series collected by Steve McCurry at “To Light a Fire” (after Victor Hugo’s “To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.”)
Umbria, Italy
Bamiyan, Afghanistan
Many more at McCurry’s blog…
*There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!
– Emily Dickinson
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As we part the pages, we might send adventurous birthday greetings to Amantine (also “Amandine”) Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant– though best known by her pen name, George Sand; she was born on this date in 1804. A prolific novelist and memoirist, she was well known and well regarded in her time; and indeed more recently: writers from Walt Whitman to A.S. Byatt have alluded to Sand’s writing in their own work. But she was in her own time probably equally renown as a free-thinker. Married at 18, she had two children– then, at 27, embarked on a five-year period of what she called “romantic rebellion”… during which she had affairs with Frédéric Chopin, Jules Sandeau, Prosper Mérimée, Alfred de Musset, Louis-Chrysostome Michel, Pierre-François Bocage, Félicien Mallefille, Louis Blanc, and (probably) the actress actress Marie Dorval. The French took all of this in stride; it was her wearing of men’s clothing (which she justified as far sturdier and less expensive than the typical dress of a noblewoman at the time) and smoking in public that sullied her image.
“There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.”
“So many books, so little time”*…
What’s a reader to do? The disciplined Matt Kahn has a plan: he’s reading– and reviewing– every one of the novels that reached the number one spot on Publishers Weekly annual bestsellers list, starting in 1913. All 94 of them.
Check out the list, and follow Matt’s progress at Kahn’s Corner.
On a related note, readers who followed last year’s Tournament of Books, might want to check in on this year’s.
* Frank Zappa
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As we renew our library cards, we might send wistful birthday greetings to Douglas Noel Adams; he was born on this date in 1952. A writer and dramatist best remembered as the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Adams surely, by merit, belonged on Kahn’s list. That will never be; Adams passed away in 2001. Still, one can honor his memory in a couple of month’s time by celebrating Towel Day.
Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend*…
Miss Ethel Philip Reading — James McNeill Whistler
Central Connecticut State University’s “America’s Most Literate Cities” study takes stock of the largest cities in the United States.
This study attempts to capture one critical index of our nation’s social health—the literacy of its major cities (population of 250,000 and above). This study focuses on six key indicators of literacy: number of bookstores, educational attainment, Internet resources, library resources, periodical publishing resources,and newspaper circulation.
This set of factors measures people’s use of their literacy and thus presents a large-scale portrait of our nation’s cultural vitality. From this data we can better perceive the extent and quality of the long-term literacy essential to individual economic success, civic participation, and the quality of life in a community and a nation.
The winner? Washington, D.C., closely followed by Seattle and Minneapolis-St. Paul. The loser? Well, readers in Stockton, Corpus Christi, and Bakersfield can check the full ranking of the 76 qualifying metros here… or not.
Woman Reading — Georges Braque
* “Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” – Groucho Marx
[Paintings via Biblioklept]
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As we polish our glasses, we might send prehistoric birthday greetings to the red-headed pride and joy of Fred and Wilma Flintstone; according to the February 22, 1963 edition of TV Guide, their daughter Pebbles was born at the Bedrock Rockapedic Hospital on this date in 10,000 B.C.
Pebbles (left) with her buddy, Bamm-Bamm Rubble
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