read: a bunch

A good amount of reading the past week. My goal is to try to finish a stash book, a Uni library book, and a NYPL book each week. As I have many books in progress so this might be do-able.

The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class by David Kidder and Noah Oppenheim

This was cute, but I read the full thing in about two weeks. It showed me how ignorant how I am about art and philosophy. I think it might make a good gift for people, but I am happy I borrowed it from the library.

How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Bennett Arnold.

This was my first read this via dailylit.com. However, I had the same problem with reading this serial as I did the Intellectual Devotional, I will read the entire thing faster if possible. I read it in about 2 days. It’s quite fascinating and I will look into some of the books mentioned in it and the amazon reviews.

Here was a quote I enjoyed:

(from Remembering Human Nature (part VI))
And it is certainly true that now, with one day in seven in which I follow no programme and make no effort save what the caprice of the moment dictates, I appreciate intensely the moral value of a weekly rest. Nevertheless, had I my life to arrange over again, I would do again as I have done. Only those who have lived at the full stretch seven days a week for a long time can appreciate the full beauty of a regular recurring idleness. Moreover, I am ageing. And it is a question of age. In cases of abounding youth and exceptional energy and desire for effort I should say unhesitatingly: Keep going, day in, day out.

Go read some of the reviews at amazon.

Listening People, Speaking Earth : Contemporary Paganism by Graham Harvey.
I picked this up last term in order to hopefully better understand the fantasy I was reading. I think this was a fairly balanced and objective look at both historical and contemporary Paganism. I do recommend it if you are curious..

Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Ancestors of Avalon by Diana L Paxon.
This was one of the last books I purchased at Coliseum. I’ll miss that store, I hadn’t purchased many books there as I wasn’t buying books from anywhere, for both budget and space reasons.. Anyway, this was a great read, especially since I’ve read Listening People and The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries. I am not familiar at all with any of the Atlantis stories so now I have something else I will want to read when I get through some of my tottering book pile. I do recommend this if you enjoyed The Mists of Avalon. I also hope to read The Forest House soon.

Sultana’s Dream : and selections from The Secluded Ones by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain.
This is another NYPL book, and I can’t recall where I learned of it to put it on my hold list. It was incredibly fascinating to me as I was not familiar with the concept of purdah and was highly curious about that life. Another thing to add to the list of things to research. I found her short story “Ladyland” very fascinating and better than Herland by Charlotte P. Gilman, published a decade later.

Ok, I think that is the full list of what I’ve read over the past week. I wonder what will be completed this week.

• Category: books