Language & Grammar discussion

Newengland wrote: "Oh, wait. They married in Feb. 1870. Thus the virgin reference. Or so he hoped. ;-)

I'm being bad. To the trails with my badness! Later, Carol!"

Hahahahahaha! See ya.

Newengland wrote: "Bollywood sounds like the soaps on daytime TV. Is this a fair comparison, though?..."

Add various choruses of singing gyrating gorgeously costumed popping up from nowhere and dancing over all available tabletops.

I am now reading Rex Stout's Fer-de-Lance. Very different from the usual British Crime Fiction which I normally like reading.I miss the Ellery Queen books, they are not available anymore. An Uncle had the whole collection which I used to dip into.And I loved reading all the Westerns- Zane Grey etc. Still makes me smile.

Zane Grey? In India? And consider this, Sonali -- from halfway around the globe, you've read an American-as-Tumbleweeds author that I've never read a word of.

Newengland wrote: "Zane Grey? In India? And consider this, Sonali -- from halfway around the globe, you've read an American-as-Tumbleweeds author that I've never read a word of."

I read a few words. That was enough.

Ha! Braver than me!

Don Quixote is such a nice, lazy read. As readers, we are less patient than readers of old sometimes. For classics, you have to go into classics mode, which is a slowing of sorts. I'm there.

Well NE, that was when I was 12 0r 13 and starving for books, any book. Things were not easily available, our country was going through teething troubles, economy had not opened up. I read most of the English classics including Twain translated into Bengali.When I was in graduation class the British Council and American Center Libraries were the only way we could get hold of books and we read everything voraciously.My father would buy books on astronomy and history, My much older cousin trash. And I would read them all.I had promised myself that once I had a job I would have a library of my own and I've kept that promise to myself.

What a great promise -- and it's pure economics the way scarcity drives up the desirability of something (like books and reading)....

I'm reading "Young Thongar" right now but can't say I'm enjoying it all that much. So far I'm reading material written just by Lin Carter--there are other folks who have contributed to the book--and I'm just having a hard time getting into his prose. I find also I'm just not caring about the situations the character is getting into.

Sounds like "time to abandon" to me.

I'm well on my way in the "fallen astronaut" book, The Infinite Tides, taking the good with the not-quite-as-good. Of course, 127-pages in, I still haven't broken from the exposition's atmosphere...

I forgot to recommend (to dystopia fans only) The Dog Stars, due out in August. Some lovely writing, but violent and maybe not so appealing to wimminfolk.

The most gruesome books I ever read were James Patterson's
Jack and Jill, Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die. Those were the only two, they were too graphic.

The past couple months I’ve been reading and re-reading the six published novels of Jane Austen. I’m happy I did / am still doing this because Jane Austen, today, seems to be presented as a witty romance novelist; she is, I now believe, much more than that.

Love and Freindship, Lady Susan, The Watsons, and Sandition might be read someday, though in the case of the latter two I have to say that novel fragments are very depressing.

If those are Jane Austen novels, they are all news to me. I've only read Pride & Prejudice under duress in high school. Nowadays, I have to flee the room when the Good Wyfe plays the video version starring her heart throb, Colin Go-Firth-and-Multiply (a.k.a. Mr. Darcy).

I'm bouncing back and forth between Christopher Hitchens' essays (fun, mostly, with a distinct voice) and Richard Wright's Black Boy. My Black Lit. resume is weak, so....

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore





All about books, bookstores, mysterious people going in and out of the bookstore, and one unusual proprietor.

You're not going to save that for the CR group read?

I couldn't wait. It is cute, not a Magnum Opus though. It is a quick read and easily read.

Saw that at the William and Mary bookstore but didn't pull the book-buying trigger.

Gabi wrote: "I have been reading (and Trev has been blogging) for weeks! I updated the library's collection of Mercedes Lackey (and friends) and have been ploughing through them plus others.

I have fallen in ..."

Hmmm interesting fact about you. I would never have supected you of that .hahaha! Blood, gut and gore.

I'm reading Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom.

I doubt I've ever seen a more engaging cover on a book about animals! It's really something. :)

Lots of terrific photos and interesting stories, too.

Margaret wrote: "I'm reading Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom.

I doubt I've ever seen a more engaging cover on a book about animals! It's really something. :)

Lots of terrific p...

Interesting how these pop up in the news now and then -- animals adopting or befriending unlikely animals, I mean. I suppose the same happens with humans. Opposites attract and all that.

I am reading Never Fall Down, a most interestingly-distressing tale of Pol Pot's ruthless Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, as told first-person by a young boy. Though it's a novelized version of truth, the book is based on interviews with a Cambodian human rights activist who was lucky enough to survive. Rather depressing. Echoes of Wiesel's Night with the senseless slaughter of innocents by those in power who have lost any semblance of humanity they once had.

The Good Wyfe cannot fathom how I can even read such books. But then, some read literature for escapist reasons and some for other reasons. I'm not sure why I read certain books. In the name of eclecticism and learning, maybe.

Newengland wrote: "Margaret wrote: "I'm reading Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom.

I doubt I've ever seen a more engaging cover on a book about animals! It's really something. :)

L..."

Yes, Newengland: these friendships fall into the category of extraordinary..... Have you seen the cover?

Yes! Chimp and dove, is it?

So would those of you have read Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom recommend it for an animal lovers Christmas gift?

Trying to slog my way throughDestiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President. It was interesting to learn about James Garfield, Dr. Lister and Alexander Bell. Right now there is a lull in the story line. Much of the political finagling is still going on today, so I am a little bored with it. I didn't realized Mr. Bell was one of the founders of the National Geographic Society.

And I am slogging through Heart of Darkness/The Secret Sharer. Probably not a wise choice in this least festive of holiday seasons, so I'm hoping to push through the last 50 pp. The first long story in the edition I have, "The Secret Sharer," I enjoyed.

I need to get me some happy, escapist literature to read real soon like. These are dark days, literally and figuratively....

How about Becoming Elizabeth Darcy , it is so fluffy it bounces. I downloaded it for free. Not spellbinding though. Woman is sick and goes back in time to inhabit Elizabeth Bennet Darcy's body. Dumb book. I am liking The Housekeeper and the Professor. Soon I will be reading Graham Greene's Orient Express.

It'll take some mulling over, but I'll need the reading equivalent of comfort food to get myself through this particular holiday.

Perhaps the answer lies with rereads of OBGs.

To love, to laugh
When the spirit
is in need
of nourishment
Gather your near
and your dear
and hang on
to the moments
Good cheers are
threading their way
to you this holiday.
And send me some damn stollen.

Would stollen survive the USPS from Massachusetts to California? Debatable.

Haha, I doubt it. Unless you like green things on it. Have a pleasant day doing things you like.

Carol wrote: "Trying to slog my way throughDestiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President. It was interesting to learn about James Garfield, Dr. Lister and Alexander Bell. Rig..."

I'm thinking ill skip this one.

It's okay, but it does drag. I did disover things about Garfield that are not taught in school. I just don't know how accurate the information is. So long story short too much politics, too little interest.

Nothing is taught about Garfield in school, so you can't help but discover things about him.

Newengland wrote: "Nothing is taught about Garfield in school, so you can't help but discover things about him."


I shall send it along if you want. I was tired of all the campaigning, so this book came at a bad time. It is next month's read.

I'll pass on that one. Somehow learning about James Garfield is not high on my list. He's an Ohio product, is he not?

Yes and he lived in poverty as a child.

Yes, and he is boring in Ohio as well. He isn't taught much. He was assassinated...one would think he would receive a mention of sorts. Hayes is pretty interesting but I may just think that because I am in love with his dishes.

StartingJepp, Who Defied the Stars , a nifty historical book. I am about 60 pages in and I am hooked.

Glad you're liking it. The first student to pick it up in the classroom abandoned it by p. 30. :-(

Oh, well. There'll be others!

Though I never read the much-balleyhooed Swamplandia!, I'm reading the ARC of Karen Russell's latest, Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories. Short stories, you see. Some not so short. This, in keeping with topic, I do by night.

In the a.m., when I wake before the alarm, I read a new chapter on a new saint in James Martin's memoir, My Life With the Saints. I'd say matin is the right time for such high-mindedness as that. Tomorrow morning I get Mother Theresa and Wednesday I get Pope John XXIII, a guy I know nothing about.

:-) Guess it fell short of expectations. Hahaha!

Well, for him it did. But he is a fan of dystopia, and this is planets away from that sort of thing....

I'm reading "From Hardtack To Homefries." Fascinating to read about resourceful women during the Civil War, making meals for wounded soldiers, with shortages of everything but pain and disease.

Joanne wrote: "I'm reading "From Hardtack To Homefries." Fascinating to read about resourceful women during the Civil War, making meals for wounded soldiers, with shortages of everything but pain and disease."

That sounds interesting. I am a sucker for civil war books.

Sounds Walt Whitmanesque. Wasn't he a "nurse" in the Uncivil War?

So I'm reading an unlikely book (for me), The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life. Only in Chapter 2, but this morning I read something very interesting there.

Author James Martin talks about the Six Paths people find themselves on when it comes to seeking, avoiding, denying, or razzing the notion of the big "G" as in "od."

I thought it was rather revelatory and found parts of myself described on more than one path.

How could that be? Because the paths don't all represent terribly religious people. In fact, all kinds of dissonance rings in our heads when we think of spiritual matters. To my mind, lots of people are "spiritual" without being "religious," yet some people might claim that that is "religious." Welcome to semantics.

So I did a search for "The Six Paths -- Jesuits" thinking it'd lead to some lame Jesuit site, but instead found that the Huffington Post had actually excerpted this part of Martin's book. Cool.

If you have time, you should read it (or some of it, maybe). The Paths are not necessarily for Christians only. You can be any religion or no religion at all (see Path #3 first, if you wish) and find yourself hinted at SOMEwhere.

1, The Path of Belief

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-jam...

2. The Path of Independence

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-jam...

3. The Path of Disbelief

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-jam...

4. The Path of Return

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-jam...

5. The Path of Exploration

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-jam...

6. The Path of Confusion

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-jam...

NE, I find myself thinking along those lines. We each chose a path, is it right or wrong, only we decide. No one or no religion should decide your journey to fulfilling your spiritual being.

Yes -- The Path of Independence in a nutshell. Or, as I like to believe, you can even "cherry pick" various ideas and beliefs from philosophers, religions, and writers.

Oh. And from Mom....

Most definitly from mom, she is your first and one of the best teacher's. Speaking from a mom's point of view.