BW39: Book News

Kitties, kids, kitchens, kisses, kings, keys, keepsakes and foolish thinkers who wants to install speakers in kayaks are all on my mind this week which is why I am bringing you the wonderful world of babbling book news.   Guess what we are learning this week?  *grin*


The Humbug:  Edgar Allan Poe and the economy of Horror

Happy birthday, Truman Capote - Interview in Paris Review  (spr/sum 97 issue)

My son has been insisting I watch Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator which is why Charlie Chaplin's Scandalous Life and Boundless Artistry caught my eye.

Letters of Note:   Kurt Vonnegut, a private during WWII was captured and became a prisoner of war. He wrote a letter to his family letting them know he was alive and ready to come home. 

Ten Things You Should Know about H.P. Lovecraft 

The Dark and Starry Eyes of Ray Bradbury 

Have you figured out the theme yet?  As if you didn't guess, we are heading into October and our Spooktacular Reading Month which will begin next Sunday on October 4th.   If you haven't read the staples of the genre - Frankenstein or Dracula, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Grey or Something Wicked This Way Comes - now is your chance.  Put away your expectations, because you just may be surprised when they don't turn out how you suspect they will.  Start looking through your shelves and pull out those spooky stories you've been meaning to read and get ready for a thrilling month.

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History of the Medieval World 

Chapter 46 - The Kailasa of the South pp  351 - 356

Chapter 47 Purifications  pp 357 - 362 

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BW38: September Equinox

Prelude to a Kiss - Josephine Wall

The September Equinox is upon us as of Wednesday the 23rd.  Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it is the beginning of Autumn and for those in the Southern Hemisphere, it is the beginning of Spring. Both day and night are exactly 12 hours long all over the world and the earth's axis which is usually tilted at about a 23.5 degree angle towards the sun, will be perpendicular to the sun's rays.  It is the tilt in the Earth's axis which is responsible for causing the seasons.  Fascinating! 

I love autumn's cooler days and vibrant colors and curling up with a good book. Which brings us to our annual fall/spring reading mini challenge.  Think of all the symbols and sounds of the seasons.  What immediately came to my mind for Autumn is rain, pumpkins, orange, red, yellow, leaves, crunchy, splash, cool, shadows, thanksgiving, wood smoke and rain coats.  For Spring, dancing, may pole, eggs, purple, yellow, birds chirping, and water.   Chose a symbol or sound and find a book with that word in the title.  It can be one already on your shelves, a reread or a brand new find.  

I went with orange and found a delightful cozy tea shop mystery series which includes Blood Orange Brewing by Laura Childs

Then yellow and found Carolyn Brown's The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop, # 3 in her Cadillac series which looks like a fun, cozy read.  

Pick a word and pick a book and have fun! 

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History of the Medieval World 

Chapter 45 -  Paths into Europe  pp 341 - 350

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Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post.

BW37: Afield at dusk

Courtesy Bloglovin Best Travel Photos

Waiting

Afield at dusk

by 

Robert Frost

WHAT things for dream there are when spectre-like, 

Moving among tall haycocks lightly piled, 

I enter alone upon the stubble field, 

From which the laborers’ voices late have died,

And in the antiphony of afterglow 

And rising full moon, sit me down 

Upon the full moon’s side of the first haycock 

And lose myself amid so many alike. 

I dream upon the opposing lights of the hour, 

Preventing shadow until the moon prevail; 

I dream upon the night-hawks peopling heaven, 

Each circling each with vague unearthly cry, 

Or plunging headlong with fierce twang afar; 

And on the bat’s mute antics, who would seem 

Dimly to have made out my secret place, 

Only to lose it when he pirouettes, 

And seek it endlessly with purblind haste; 

On the last swallow’s sweep; and on the rasp 

In the abyss of odor and rustle at my back, 

That, silenced by my advent, finds once more, 

After an interval, his instrument, 

And tries once—twice—and thrice if I be there; 

And on the worn book of old-golden song 

I brought not here to read, it seems, but hold 

And freshen in this air of withering sweetness:

But on the memory of one absent most, 

For whom these lines when they shall greet her eye. 

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History of The Medieval World 

Chapter 44 - Days of the Empress pp 333 - 340 

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Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. 

BW36: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Happy 87th Birthday to Robert Pirsig.  He is the author of the philosophical book  Zen in the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, in which he discusses the metaphysics of quality.   Yes, it is a dusty book on our shelves, one of hubby's and he's encouraged me to read it time and time again.  I guess it's time to dust it off and dig in.   

Metaphysics of quality - whatever does it mean?  I took this quote from wikipedia because it is the only one that came close to making sense to me: 

Dynamic quality cannot be defined. It can only be understood intellectually through the use of analogy. It can be described as the force of change in the universe; when an aspect of quality becomes habitual or customary, it becomes static. Pirsig calls dynamic quality "the pre-intellectual cutting edge of reality" because it can be recognized before it can be conceptualized. This is why the dynamic beauty of a piece of music can be recognized before a static analysis explaining why the music is beautiful can be constructed."

Got it? Good. Me neither. For a more in depth explanation, check out the Dr. McWatt's Introduction to MOQ and for some entertaining insight, read CBCNews 40th anniversary review A Fresh Look at Robert Pirsig which includes an audio interview. 

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 History of the Medieval World 

Part Four - States and Kingdoms 

Chapter 42: Law and Language - pp 319 - 326 

Chapter 43: Creating the past - pp 327 - 332 

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