Back when I was asking for book recommendations perhaps a few seasons ago, someone recommended I read Sanctuary by William Faulkner. Actually, it was an anonymous person, but I believe I know who that person was. I think. Anyway, I read the book and found it to be very...interesting. If I were in a literature class I could go crazy discussing the themes, but alas, I am not.
Dear Sir and I went to this local bookstore a couple of weekends ago and almost fainted at the prices. They were a buck a piece for nice hardbacks! I snatched up Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence (I had just finished Lady Chatterly's Lover, or rather my version was called, Sir Thomas and Lady Jane----I can not cleanly and purely tell you what the title means because it is a bit graphic), two Faulkner novels (Sanctuary and A Light in August), and The Possessed by Dostoyevsky. I love that guy.
Since I have some new readers to this blog since I asked last---any book recommendations? I love the Classics the most, but sometimes I will read a modern book if my arm is twisted enough.
I finished last week a book (not a classic) called The Short Day Dying by Peter Hobbs. It was incredible. I mean, the story pretty much had no plot, but the writing was poetic and beautiful, the narration was pure dreary delight. It is very depressing in some ways, but I like depressing. The author made me think. It was really interesting how the serious things of this life, what we dare not say, is so easily spoken by the narrator. --And how to put those feelings into words with life and new meaning. After I read this book I could see what I always saw but never understood: there is beauty in hardship, death, and the slipping away of days.
So, let me know what books you think I should delve into.
Green Cathedral
Madness in a high-ceilinged building.
Followers
People in my Holy Place
The Professor----Formerly known as Dear Sir, my husband, the man of the house
The Oldest----Known in younger years as Mickey Mouse, and now he is embracing adulthood by being over 18.
Eraser Eater----Well-known for his old habit of eating erasers and whining about ridiculous things. Now he eats Tabasco sauce and says little in his 15 years.
The Girl---The one who is still more mature than I am at 13.
The Oldest----Known in younger years as Mickey Mouse, and now he is embracing adulthood by being over 18.
Eraser Eater----Well-known for his old habit of eating erasers and whining about ridiculous things. Now he eats Tabasco sauce and says little in his 15 years.
The Girl---The one who is still more mature than I am at 13.
16 comments:
I'm almost done with Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. That's as classical as I get. Sorry I'm no help.
Wow. You don't freakin' mess around when you read!
Did you just wake up from a hundred year coma and you're trying to catch up?
One of my favorite books: Hocus Pocus, by Kurt Vonnegut
Well, let's see. You don't really want MY opinion since I'm an "information" reader and not a reader for pleasure (unless you want to count blogs). I am currently reading "The Well Trained Mind," the EPA's website about toxic chemicals in the home, a Veritas Press History teacher's manual, and currently on my night-table is a book called "How We Got The Bible" (I'm too lazy to go up there to find the name of the author for you). I'm so much fun. :)
Nope, Farmer Boy doesn't help, Woman. Although I have not read it! Ha ha!
Cathouse Teri--No, I don't mess around. I need classics to survive. I was born a bit too late, but at least I can enjoy the past a little.
I have not read any Vonnegut, and I have had people recommend him before so I will put that on the list.
Anne--I have read through The Well-Trained Mind (and think it daunting), and I use Veritas curriculum at times too! What a small world.
Wish I could sit and read information books all the time, I just can't.
But you are fun, don't worry. At least you are more well-informed than I!
I can't remember any off the top of my head, but I'll think on it and get back to you. and now a gift for you, that I know you will enjoy for years to come.
Dooz--you must be a demon from the very bowels of Satan himself! That was totally disgusting.
So, the Short Day Dying is like the literary equivalent of Napoleon Dynamite then, right?.. (no plot, poetic, dreamy narrative). I might have to read that.
I keep telling myself that I'm going to make time to shoehorn in the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer, but I keep piling more things that I have to read on my plate (not for liesure). I also want to read some modern translations (not adaptations) of Sheakspeare so I can get the gist of the story before going through the original writing.
Yet, I find myself in the midst of a book helping me get a small business off the ground (not the get quick rich kind, the normal kind). OY!
The Short Day Dying is actually about a Methodist lay preacher (he is in his twenties) in Cornwall in 1870 or so. He is saddened by the fact that no one comes to service and everyone is poor and lacking in food. He himself is compelled to preach miles and miles away on his days off from apprenticing at a local forge. He makes a piddly amount of money and his landlady sucks it all up, therefore leaving him with very little to live on. The bright side of his life is when he is able to visit a young blind woman in her home and see how faithful to the Lord she is.
You might like it. I haven't seen Napolean Dynamite, so I have no idea if it is the same or not!
Yeah, I should read more Shakespeare or Homer, but I am not THAT into the classics. I mean, I would, but not with great haste.
Actually, likening the elements you talked about to Napoleon Dynamite was purely satirical. That fact that you haven't seen it yet could only mean that you're an anti-American communist. I'd hasten to rent it if I were you...
Not a Communist, but maybe anti-American.
Dear Sir won't let me rent it anyway if I wanted to. I would probably be watching the thing by myself if I could rent it. I have seen snippets on MTV.
My movie watching is very limited. I suppress my urge to watch chick flicks because of this. We only watch movies we BOTH want to see. Sort of a truce we called long ago. But I did make him sit through Pride and Prejudice (he usually battles a BBC Victorian video all for me though, so he is a good man).
I bet you didn't want to know any of that!
I think Eraser Eater is a Communist though, sadly enough. :)
You absolutely have to read THIS BOOK!
The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout, Ph.d.
Of course, it is non-fiction.
Here's how to read Shakespeare. Buy a copy of the Complete Works for each of your kids. Divide the number of pages by the number of days in your school year. Requre them to read that many pages a day for a year and write commentary on it everyday. Don't worry that they don't know everything. They are learning to read and think about the classics as they go. Let them draw their own conclusions. Read and correct their writing. You will all be geniouses when you are done with the year. This works best in high school.
Please forgive me! I could not resist, that horse was the ugliest thing I've ever seen, plus I thought of you and chuckled
Why won't dh watch ND? Just curious.
Shealy, I will look the book up.
Also--I will take your advice with Shakespeare and do it. I think that sounds superb.
Doozie---I can't forgive you, that was rotten to the core. How you found that is beyond me! LOL!
Emily--my husband won't watch ND because people tell him he should and he can't stand any of the clips he has seen of it already, so he does not want to waste his time. Some one a few years ago told him that he should see the movie "About Schmidt" because it changed his life, and Dear Sir stiffens up every time he hears anything about that movie to this day and will not agree to see it.
Night by Elie Wiesel
The Scarlet Thread by Francine Rivers
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
The Song of Albion Trilogy by Stephen Lawhead
(these are so good, I can't see straight!!)
A Skeleton in God's Closet by Paul L. Maier
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