A book is a literary compass that has the potential to direct our thoughts and actions:
"Everything we read stimulates our mind to think, and what we think determines what we desire, and desires are the seedbed of our actions. Given this iron law of human nature--from reading to thinking, to desiring, to acting--we are shaping our destiny by the ideas we choose to have enter our minds through print." - Fr. John Hardon, S.J.,
The Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan
Welcome to my own personal exploration of life through reading the great books of the world.
I don't often understand Gene Wolfe's books, but I'm always captivated by his characters. Wolfe is one of those authors whose books leave me feeling a bit like an alien abductee who's been returned to his home: I know something important just happened, I just don't quite know what it was.
Fortunately, The Knight seems more accessible to me than other Wolfe novels I've read (which, admittedly, haven't been many). And Wolfe still has the power to create compelling, likeable characters. Like Severian in The Book of the New Sun, I liked Able of the High Heart from the opening paragraph, and I enjoy spending my time reading about him.
The story itself begins like many other fantasy stories: someone from our world somehow finds himself in a fantasy world or fairy land. Most of the time this device doesn't work, but occasionally an author can pull it off brilliantly (Kay's The Fionavar Tapestry, Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions, for instance). I have every confidence that Wolfe will be able to make it work in his novel. He's already got Kay and Anderson beat for the best transition from this world to the fantasy world.
I look forward to reading the rest of the The Knight, and I'll post more about the book as I work my way through it.
I finally had to abandon Tim Powers' supernatural spy novel, Declare. I read over 200 pages into it and just couldn't go any further. I really enjoyed Powers' earlier novel, The Anubis Gates, and I had high hopes for Declare after reading reviews. But the book didn't evoke any emotional reaction from me at all. I never really connected with Hale, the main character, and I didn't care for the way Powers' narrator alternated back and forth between the 1940s and the 1960s.
I think part of the problem was my unfamiliarity with many of the historical references in the book. If the characters or the story would have captivated me more, I would have done a little research into the history, but it just wasn't worth the time. As a point of comparison, when I began reading Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series, I only had a surface knowledge of nautical terms and Napleonic history, but I was so interested in Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin that I bought companion books to help me understand the story better. I had no such desire with Declare.
I was intrigued by the religious elements in the book, but not enough to keep reading. Fans of spy novels may have better luck with it than I did.
I've known some bibliomaniacs in my time, but Archdeacon Meadow has got to be one of the worst afflicted:
Archdeacon Meadow accumulated so many books that he was forced to sell a considerable portion of his collection. But as their auction proceeded he experienced such passionate anguish that he left the room and returned again in disguise to begin bidding for his own books.
--Otto L. Bettman, The Delights of Reading: Quotes, Notes and Anecdotes
The Book-Lender's Soliloquy by Nick Senger (with apologies to Shakespeare)
To lend or not to lend, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of a book lost forever, Or to hoard books against a sea of troubles, And by keeping them hide them? To read: to lend; No more. And by hoarding to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That the librarian is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To read, to lend; To lend, perchance to lose. Ay, there's the rub. For in that loss of books what dreams may come.
I give hearty and humble thanks for the safe return of this book, which having endured the peril's of my friend's bookcase and the bookcases of my friend's friends, now returns to me in reasonably good condition. I give hearty and humble thanks that my friend did not see fit to give this book to his infant for a plaything, nor use it as an ashtray for his burning cigar, nor as a teething-ring for his mastiff. When I loaned this book I deemed it as lost; I was resigned to the business of the long parting. But now that my book has come back to me, I rejoice and am exceedingly glad! Bring hither the fatted morocco and let us rebind the volume and set it on the shelf of honor, for this my book was lent and is returned again. Presently, therefore, I may return some of the books I myself have borrowed.
I am very pleased to announce the launch of my major web project, Teen Literacy Tips. If you are a junior or senior high teacher or administrator, a homeschooling parent, or a parent who wants to enrich your teen's classroom education, Teen Literacy Tips is designed for you. Please tell as many people as you can about it. Here's an excerpt from the introductory page:
This site will help you turn each of your students into the elusive Literate Teenager -- spontaneous yet intelligent, energetic yet thoughtful, the despair of nutritionists and the hope of the world. If you're a junior or senior high teacher, a concerned parent, or a school administrator, the materials you find here will help you teach teens to be more human, to be more intelligent, and to be more analytical. Using the skills and resources on this site, you'll become the reading mentor students need: the Gandalf to their Frodo, the Good Witch to their Dorothy, the Socrates to their Plato.
The heart of this site is Teen Literacy Tips, an educational blog that provides you with teaching techniques and advice several times a week. You can subscribe to the feed using a blog reader, or you can simply bookmark the page and visit it each day.
The discussion forums give you a chance to connect with other teachers and parents who face the same challenges you do when it comes to teaching teens to improve their reading habits and skills.
And one of the most exciting areas is the resources section, where you will find lessons, book lists, articles, and much more, including audio and video files that you can download. This area will be expanding greatly during the coming months, so be sure to visit it frequently.
I've even partnered with Simply Hired to provide job listings for those of you that might be fresh out of college and looking for work, or for those of you looking for a change of scene.
Are you a bibliophile in search of the perfect book? Are you a perfectionist like I am? Then read on.
The following excerpt is taken from a fantasic book for readers called A Passion for Books: A Book Lover's Treasury, edited by Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan (Times Books, 1999).
The Perfect Book William Keddie
The Foulis's edition of classical works were much praised by scholars and collectors in the nineteenth century. The celebrated Glasgow publishers once attempted to issue a book which should be perfect specimen of typographical accuracy. Every precaution was taken to secure the desired result. Six experienced proof-readers were employed, who devoted hours to the reading of each page; and after it was thought to be perfect, it was posted up in the hall of the university, with a notification that a reward of fifty pounds would be paid to any person who could discover an error. Each page was suffered to remain two weeks in the place where it had been posted, before the work was printed, and the printers thought they had attained the object for which they had been striving. When the work was issued, it was discovered that several errors had been committed, one of which was in the first line of the first page.
I've never started a meme before, but I've always wanted to (Well, maybe not always, but at least since last Thursday. Anyway...) Here are the rules:
Blend two book titles together by using the last word of one title and the first word of the second title. If you want, you can blend the authors' names too. Like this:
The Divine Comedy 0f Errors by Dante Shakespeare
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince of Tides by J.K Conroy
The Canterbury Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Geoffrey Blume
The Screwtape Letters to a Young Poet by C.S. Rilke
and of course,
The Last Don Quixote by Mario de Cervantes.
Now it's your turn. Write as many or as few as you want. Tag six people. Extra credit for blending titles with my other two favorite books, Lord of the Rings and Master and Commander. Extra extra credit if you can find another title that blends with Don Quixote.
5 Great Books to Read Aloud at the Family Dinner Table
One of my favorite things to do is share stories with my family at the dinner table. A few years ago when I was reading Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series my boys asked me each night at dinner to tell them what had happened to Captain Aubrey and his friend Stephen Maturin. It gave me a chance to share the joys of reading with my sons, and it also encouraged me to keep reading.
Another great way to encourage reading in your kids is to read to them at the beginning of dinner. Reading to your family at dinner has several benefits:
Everyone has to be quiet while you read.
The stories give you something to talk about as a family.
You get the chance to model good reading skills.
You create family memories that last a lifetime.
Reading at the dinner table should be brief, for three reasons: (1) kids have short attention spans; (2) you need time to talk about what you've read; and (3) you need to eat.
Here are several titles that contain short readings that are perfect for reading aloud at the dinner table (Be sure to preview each story before reading it to your kids--some of these books contain stories that would launch the kind of discussion you may not be ready for, if you know what I mean):
The World's Shortest Stories - All the stories in this book are 55 words or less. The hard part is not giving in to the temptation to read more than one.
Two-Minute Mysteries - Fun little brain exercises for kids between the ages of 9 and 15.
3 Minutes or Less: Life Lessons from America's Greatest Writers - Reading aloud is not just for kids. Adults can read to each other, too. This book is more sophisticated than the others and may be more appealing to couples or empty-nesters; older teenagers may enjoy it too.
You can also read from your favorite saint book, Aesop's fables, or chapters from books like the Magic Treehouse series.
John at SF Signal reviewed my free ebook ROMAN Reading in post called When in Rome...Do as Elitists Do? I really appreciate the time he took to read the book and write about it. His comments actually illustrate a couple of the elements of ROMAN Reading: Asking questions about what you read, and Naming your experiences.
One of the questions he asks is if the neighborhood analogy is elitist. Here are his thoughts:
Encouraging reading is a good thing, but I detect a smack of reading elitism here, particularly in this passage:
Books are like neighbors, and your personal library is your neighborhood. Take a look at your bookshelves. What kind of neighborhood are you living in? Are you in a slum or in the suburbs? Who are your neighbors? Are they trash talkers or shrewd sages? If you live next door to Socrates, then invite him to dinner every night. If you live next to Dan Brown, then put your house on the market.
He goes on to say:
I sometimes hear people speak as if (or say outright that) reading is not a worthwhile activity unless you are reading Literature with a capital L. Enter self-doubt. Am I wasting my time by reading anything else? Am I denying myself the true value of reading? Am I becoming a literary snob? Is this self-doubt the beginning of a midlife crisis?
What great questions! I began to leave John a comment, but it kept getting longer and longer, so I thought I'd respond here. Again, I'd like to thank John for mentioning the book and linking to it.
First let me say that I have "lowbrow" tastes in books, too--my favorites span a wide range: on the "lower" end I have such favorites as pulp hero Doc Savage, the Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison, the Conan series, and any short story collection with Alfred Hitchcock in the title.
Reading for fun is as necessary as taking the weekend off from work, or going on an extended vacation every once in a while. Not every book is meant to educate or inspire. What I was trying to say with the neighborhood analogy (while poking a little fun at Dan Brown), is that behind every book is a real person. Books have as much power to influence us as the friends we hang around.
Each person must choose their own friends, but if I see my teenage son constantly getting into trouble because of the influence of his friends, I will try and point that out to him. In the same way, books can have a positive or negative effect on us, and I was trying to remind my readers of that. I'd like to insert one of my favorite quotes here. It's by Father John Hardon, and you can find it on every page of this blog:
"Everything we read stimulates our mind to think, and what we think determines what we desire, and desires are the seedbed of our actions. Given this iron law of human nature--from reading to thinking, to desiring, to acting--we are shaping our destiny by the ideas we choose to have enter our minds through print."
Are there some books that I think everyone should read? Yes, I must admit that I believe there are. Not necessarily because they are "better" than others, but because they have so much to offer everyone. Think of it this way: Aren't there some people who are just so inspirational and intelligent (and even holy) that everyone would benefit from meeting them? Mother Teresa comes to mind. Well, I can't meet Mother Teresa in person anymore because she has passed on, but I can read what she left behind and get to know her through her books. She is someone I think everyone would have benefited from meeting.
There's also some faulty logic that people can slip into when talking about books. I'm guilty of it myself at times. I occasionally fall into the trap of putting books into two categories: (1) fun books, and (2) literature. The mistake is thinking that these two categories are mutually exclusive. What has happened to me as I've expanded my reading is that the books I used to think of as "fun" (like Conan, for instance) have actually become a bit boring and not as entertaining as they used to be. What I find now is that literature is more fun and entertaining to me, and much of the enjoyment comes from wrestling with the author's ideas.
If you "wrestled" with my ideas in ROMAN Reading, I hope it gave you some enjoyment. I'm sorry if it seemed elitist, and I hope this post has clarified things a bit. Thanks again, John, for your challenging remarks and for linking to Literary Compass.
Literary Testosterone - 30 Must-Read Classics for Teenage Boys
This is a follow-up to Maureen's question about recommendations for 12 and 13 year-old boys. Without getting into a big discussion about gender stereotyping, let me just say that in general boys at this age tend to read books that are more action and adventure oriented, while girls enjoy reading more about relationships.
Case in point: I teach The Hobbit and Les Miserables to my eighth graders each year. Both boys and girls love these books. But when I look at the few students who didn't like them, I have more girls who didn't like The Hobbit, and more boys who didn't like Les Miserables.
The books I'm about to recommend for boys are also great for girls to read, and there are many books not listed here that boys would like. I think boys should read Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and Louisa May Alcott, but I don't think most boys would pick these books up on their own. The following books are titles and authors that I think most boys would enjoy, and that contain themes that are valuable for teen and pre-teen boys to think about.
Fantasy/Horror
Anything by Ray Bradbury: I think of Ray Bradbury as a modern-day Edgar Allen Poe, and his books are perfect for teenage boys. There's always something to talk about after reading Ray Bradbury.
Something Wicked This Way Comes - Every boy should read this book, and every father, too. It can be frightening, but it is well worth reading.
The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, Jr. - This book is a hidden gem--important spiritual themes, connections to Chaucer and the middle ages. I once had the opportunity to interview the author with my eighth graders after we finished studying it - they loved the interview and the book. Don't miss it.
Science Fiction
Flatlandby Edwin Abbott - A brief fairytale-ish book that explores mathematical concepts like the fourth dimension. Fun and educational.
The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov - A sort of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire set in space; great plot twists. A true classic of the genre and very accessible to teens. The first book in the series is Foundation.
The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov - A great murder mystery set in the future. Combines elements of science fiction and classic mystery stories into one.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - I hesitated to put this on the list because it contains some profanity and a few disturbing elements, but every single student of mine who has read this has loved it. Without exception. Read this with your kids so you can talk about it with them.
The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Before Michael Crichton's version, the author of Sherlock Holmes had already written about a lost island of dinosaurs.
Time and Again by Jack Finney - A terrific time travel story; the amount of historical detail in this book is mind-boggling. Part mystery, part romance, part sci-fi, it really defies categories.
Historical
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara - Pulitzer winning novel of the battle of Gettysburg; would be great to read in conjunction with an American History class. After they finish, show them the movie Gettysburg.
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas - Look up swashbuckle in the dictionary and you'll find this book. Young readers may need help understanding church politics.
Mr. Midshipman Easy by Captain Frederick Marryat - a great precursor to Forester's Hornblower series or Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series. Fun and easy to read.
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott - Classic medieval adventure.
Mysteries
The Father Brown stories by G. K. Chesterton - The gentle, intelligent Father Brown makes a great role model for boys, and gives them a healthy portrayal of a priest.
Anything by Agatha Christie - Her books are continual favorites of my students, especially the novels featuring Hercule Poirot. Make sure they read Curtain (but only after reading four or five other Hercule Poirot mysteries first).
The Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters - Brother Cadfael is a monk in the thirteenth century who always seems to end up in the middle of murder investigations. The first book is A Morbid Taste for Bones.
Assorted other titles:
Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling - Terrific coming of age story set at sea.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Explores many issues, but one key issue is the definition of courage.
The Ox-bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark - Not only a great Western, but an insightful exploration of justice and vigilantism. Perfect for discussing over the dinner table.
Hondo - Every boy should read at least one Louis L'Amour novel in his life, and Hondo is one of the best.
Shane by Jack Schaefer- The all-time greatest Western ever written (in my humble opinion). Another must-read for pre-teen or teenage boys.
Hiroshima by John Hersey - A nonfiction account of survivors of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. This can be a frightening book for young readers, so use your own judgement.
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot - Nonfiction account of a rural veterinarian; another perfect book for boys.
Also, I'm currently developing a summer reading group for junior high and high school students and their families that I plan to launch in the next week or two. Stay tuned.
I have 12 and 13 yo boys and would love some book recommendations. Is Don Quixote appropriate for their age group? They are voracious readers, and I find we're on the brink of children's and adult books. Thanks for any advice.
What a great question! One of my favorite things to do is recommend books. First, concerning Don Quixote: In sixteen years of teaching junior high students, I only recall three students who read Don Quixote all the way through, but each of them really enjoyed it.
My wife and I have a sixteen-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old boy (not to mention our two daughters ages 8 and 2), and I have to say that our sixteen-year-old who is not a habitual reader yet (sigh), would not touch Don Quixote with a twelve-foot pole; but our twelve-year-old laughs out loud whenever my wife listens to the audiobook in the car. I'm not sure he's ready to read it, but he definitely gets the humor.
One caveat: Don Quixote can be a bit risque at times, almost like a vaudeville show. It's very tame compared to society's standards (alas!), but there are a few sections where an innocent young man might come to his parents to ask what something means. Purity, honor and religion are always upheld as virtues, but there are occasional references to things like prostitutes and consummating marriages.
Finally, Part I of Don Quixote is filled with digressions, side stories, and one out-and-out novel that is inserted into the story. I happen to enjoy the side-stories, but young readers may not have the patience to read about secondary characters for long periods (and most of the side stories are love stories). However, if they can make it to the second half of the book it will be worth it. Part II was written about fifteen years after Part I, and as enjoyable and necessary as Part I is, Part II is by far the better half, in my opinion. You could even suggest that they read Part I then take a break and read something else before coming back to Part II, so they don't get burned out on too much Don Quixote.
Wow, I didn't expect to say so much about Don Quixote. But then, I do have Manchegan Madness, so I guess it's to be expected. I'll follow this post up with some book recommendations for pre-teenage and teenage boys.
Claire Cameron, author of The Line Painter, points out that HarperCollins Canada is starting a reading group based on her book. They're also giving away free copies of the book to the first 50 Canadians to join the group.
The first complete book by J.R.R. Tolkien in three decades -- since the publication of The Silmarillion in 1977 -- The Children of Hurin reunites fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, Eagles and Orcs. Presented for the first time as a complete, standalone story, this stirring narrative will appeal to casual fans and expert readers alike, returning them to the rich landscape and characters unique to Tolkien.
The Children of Hurin, begun in 1918, was one of three 'Great Tales' J.R.R. Tolkien worked on throughout his life, though he never realized his ambition to see it published. Though familiar to many fans from extracts and references within other Tolkien books, it has long been assumed that the story would forever remain an unfinished tale. Now reconstructed by Christopher Tolkien, painstakingly editing together the complete work from his father's many drafts, this book is the culmination of a tireless thirty-year endeavor by him to bring J.R.R.Tolkien's vast body of unpublished work to a wide audience.
I couldn't help but think of this quote by Emily Dickinson as I was writing about Geoff Hunt and Patrick O'Brian, and since April is National Poetry Month I wanted to share it with you:
There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away...
Books to Be Tasted - A Reading List for Junior High Students
I just posted my eighth grade reading list at FreeIQ for those of you who are teachers or who might have teenagers. The list contains over 300 titles of various levels that have been compiled during my last sixteen years as a teacher. I hope you find it helpful.
