Todd > Recent Status Updates

I read White Nights a long time ago. Now I'm working on _Notes from Underground_. Truly a repugnant character; and the style a little unpleasant to me (faux dialogue). But I'm warming to it as I come to the close of part 1. I almost like him like I can almost like (with pity) the dwarves in _The Last Battle_.

had to go back to the library

had to go back to the library

Reading this book is such an odd experience for me. A mixture of awe and envy. I have to be honest, I wish I had half her ideas. I've got this checked out from the library, but I have the feeling I'll have to buy it someday.

Reading this book is such an odd experience for me. A mixture of awe and envy. I have to be honest, I wish I had half her ideas. I've got this checked out from the library, but I have the feeling I'll have to buy it someday.

[Erland] must be near thirty-two years old — but he bore himself like a mischievous boy. That quote sums up my sinking feelings. Lavrens is so good and wholesome. Erland is a mess.

A bit of a goofball, this guy. But maybe that's a plus. Prayer is stale because were in rut. These are hardly zen koans, but maybe they have the same sort of effect.

Hereclitus: There is becoming, but nothing which becomes. Parmendides: There is being, but change (hence becoming) is illusory. Evidently Plato create a synthesis as summed up in chapter VI.

I'm reading this out of order, so doesn't make sense to add page numbers I guess. I did read the intro and then the first competency (concept), but then skipped ahead to plot which I've been reading and re-reading at intervals. I've never really read for plot, and it's always been my last thing to think about when ideas for stories come up. My ideas are more character/concept based I guess. So I'm intrigued.

This book is large, and it's chapters big, but they are divided into mini-sections which are really enjoyable. I just finished one (38-46) on early approach to church-state relations as exemplified by John Winthrop. This is a snippet to re-read. "The perfect Protestant society...associated liberty with godliness...define liberty?...exercise of liberty become lawlessness?"

I'm slow reading this. Enjoyable section on Sir Walter Raleigh. I'm an ignoramous. It's fun to go back and plug in the beginnings of the US into the European history and culture. My historical knowledge is so patchy and thin.

Great ideas.

Libresco has the best analogies. She uses Lewis's "Behind enemy lines" bit, but extends the "Simple Sabotage Field Manual" of WWII to the fight against our enemy. What are the SSFM did not advise trying your hand at bombs, but everywhere creating little conveniences. What are the little conveniences to our enemy, but little graces?

“Keeping faith secret and private seems a little like lying” yes. It’s such a sad, exhausting existence.

He just loves to know. He loves to read and find out. Chp 26 again gets into this. He didn't want help with research because he loved it. He loved history, he loved anthropology, he loved stories.

I've never read such a clear account of spiritual matters.

This is a very short book and simple, but the model it presents seems to me profound. I recognize that I'm pretty new to this field so maybe this will be obvious to many, but whereas I used to ask if the label addict could belong to me, now I realize that everyone can benefit from understanding the mechanism, because all of us to some degree can fall prey to it.

Lavrens comes home and says no, we learn more about Lavrens and ragnfrid.

Wonderful book. Intellectual transition from Unitarian to Catholic. Limited window but fascinating so far.

Laments that we don’t appreciate the short story as much anymore. Happy for new books but laments we don’t read so much good writing of yesterday.

Laments that we don’t appreciate the short story as much anymore. Happy for new books but laments we don’t read so much good writing of yesterday.

Interesting chap (23): musings on creativity and unfettering the mind so that it can act unconsciously once given ingredients (like the stomach does once fed). Also on his library. Not especially concerned with creating a 'great books' collection. He's read many of the great books, and some are still there that he expects to come back to, but mostly it's specific references he's collected as the best in field.

I'm enjoying the book enough, but unlike other books on saints I've read, I'm not so much getting a picture of the saint as I am of the confounded secular French government.

chp21: boxing, Public speaking. His library: The best of the best. Many books that he might dip into again (and does at random from time to time), but not all of them by any means.

Simon's shows himself a man sadly only once it is too late. Is the lady whose house Kristin and Erland use a witch or prostitute; I admit that I do not know. Lavrans shows himself a candid, but truly good man as he picks up Kristin.

I like this book for its history. It’s style is not scholarly; more “hagiographic”. Calloway likes to talk of the rosary as a spiritual sword and I’m not against that idea, but he seems kind bro-ish in his delivery. That is not to my liking, but I like the history (esp. later years) and the quotes. It pairs well with “rosary” by Kevin orlin johnson for whose style I much prefer.

Things bog for awhile as she wallows, but then she meets with Edvin. The parts with Edvin are so good. The time with Simon's family and the meet up again with Erland move the plot forward. At times I tire of Kristin's languishing, and at times I appreciate her introspection.

I love the simplicity of St. Bernadette. I enjoyed the general theme of this simplicity versus the spirit of the time as characterized by the men who gather to drink and scheme and gossip on all the hub bub surrounding the apparitions. But I did get a little bogged down sometimes in all the characters and description.

Books seems pretty short, but I'm fascinated. I'm new the genre, but the laying out of the structure of addiction is interesting and seems like a great things to read even for those who feel they just have bad habits instead of thinking of them as addictions. Thought provoking at the least.