Dusting off the blog: Day 1: A Book A Day ... Mrs. Dalloway
No excuses.
Others make time to blog. I haven't. That said, I'm not going to NOT do my December book recommendations because what better gift is there than books?
Really, there's no better gift.
Really.
So, I'm beginning December's "a book a day" with a challenge:
Buy a book and/or give a book you've already read ... many years ago.And here's why.
I re-read Mrs. Dalloway a few weeks ago. Like any good English major, I read it in college, underlined the "important bits," wrote the obligatory literary analysis, caught onto The Heart of Darkness reference (probably gave myself a pat on the back for it) ... But I never actually read it until a month ago, and it is exquisite. It took me over a week to read it because whenever I'd slip into speed reader coma state, I'd miss something fantastic. So I read slowly. I paid attention. I watched Septimus' madness grow and felt horrified when he killed himself. Helpless and disappointed and hopeful that he wouldn't, though I knew he would. I loved the characterization of Mrs. Dalloway, Peter, Sally ... a cast of characters fleshed out to be flawed, likeable, hateful people. Virginia Woolf took her time to create a moment in time, a snapshot to the human character.
I loved the slow, deliberate prose that is more like poetry. I loved the concise insights that are not at all removed from the realities we live today, filling up emptiness with things and frivolity. So many of us are like Mrs. Dalloway, as "Mrs. Dalloway is always giving parties to cover up the silence." I paid attention.
Pay attention.
Read something you ripped through many years ago and be surprised when you really read.
In fact, this month I'm celebrating not only books but the way we read books; the way we live life. Pay attention or you might miss something exquisite like this:
As a cloud crosses the sun, silence falls on London; and falls on the mind. Effort ceases. Time flaps on the mast. There we stop; there we stand. Rigid, the skeleton of habit alone upholds the human frame
Like. Wow.
Others make time to blog. I haven't. That said, I'm not going to NOT do my December book recommendations because what better gift is there than books?
Really, there's no better gift.
Really.
So, I'm beginning December's "a book a day" with a challenge:
Buy a book and/or give a book you've already read ... many years ago.And here's why.
I re-read Mrs. Dalloway a few weeks ago. Like any good English major, I read it in college, underlined the "important bits," wrote the obligatory literary analysis, caught onto The Heart of Darkness reference (probably gave myself a pat on the back for it) ... But I never actually read it until a month ago, and it is exquisite. It took me over a week to read it because whenever I'd slip into speed reader coma state, I'd miss something fantastic. So I read slowly. I paid attention. I watched Septimus' madness grow and felt horrified when he killed himself. Helpless and disappointed and hopeful that he wouldn't, though I knew he would. I loved the characterization of Mrs. Dalloway, Peter, Sally ... a cast of characters fleshed out to be flawed, likeable, hateful people. Virginia Woolf took her time to create a moment in time, a snapshot to the human character.
I loved the slow, deliberate prose that is more like poetry. I loved the concise insights that are not at all removed from the realities we live today, filling up emptiness with things and frivolity. So many of us are like Mrs. Dalloway, as "Mrs. Dalloway is always giving parties to cover up the silence." I paid attention.
Pay attention.
Read something you ripped through many years ago and be surprised when you really read.
In fact, this month I'm celebrating not only books but the way we read books; the way we live life. Pay attention or you might miss something exquisite like this:
As a cloud crosses the sun, silence falls on London; and falls on the mind. Effort ceases. Time flaps on the mast. There we stop; there we stand. Rigid, the skeleton of habit alone upholds the human frame
Like. Wow.
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