Holiday Fares?

This week’s question: How does your reading (or your blogging) fare in the holiday months? Do you read more or less? Do you have to actively make time to read? Blogging will not be affected and less intermittent during the holiday season this year because I won’t be taking a trip to my hometown, Hong [...]

Posterity: What Makes a Classic?

Last week’s Booking Through Thursday question concerned the posterity issue in literature. It asked whether any of the modern authors can measure up to the caliber of Dickens, Austen, and Bronte. While I’m not sure what qualities the host thinks give these authors their status but I must say, from my humble and limited experience [...]

[246] Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

“The human soul enjoys these rare, classic periods, but, apart from them, we are seldom single or unique; we keep company in this world with a hoard of abstractions and reflections and counterfeits of ourselves—the sensual man, the economic man, the man of reason, the beast . . . indistinguishable from ourselves to the outward [...]

Truly Chillaxing, and Bookish Palm Springs

  Tortuga del Sol, Palm Springs, originally uploaded by moleskineboy. I spent my birthday in Palm Springs the past weekend. Tortuga del Sol is a very quiet resort tugged away in the desert against the backdrop of the mountains. For a good amount of the stay we were the only guests who got to enjoy [...]

Thankful Thursday

This week’s question: It’s Thanksgiving in the U.S.A. today, so I know at least some of you are going to be as busy with turkey and family as I will be, so this week’s question is a simple one: What books and authors are you particularly thankful for this year? I don’t want to give [...]

[245] The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

“Oh…well, about life being a game and all. And how you should play it according to the rules . . . If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it’s a game, all right—I’ll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren’t any hot shots, then [...]

“Old-School” Favorites

Tomorrow I have my first teaching job (yes, I’m sharing my non-book bloggy news!) and it’s inspired today’s Musing Monday. What books did you read while in school? Were there any that you particular liked, or even hated? Did any become lifelong favourites? This question will open up a wide discussion because at least for [...]

Serendipity in Reading

What fun it is when your current reading evokes the book you last finished, and somehow by serendipity creates a domino effect. The Year of Ice evokes Maurice in the way the character splendidly but also sadly describes how happiness in such forbidden love can only be found in sleep–a dream from which ones doesn’t [...]

[244] The Year of Ice – Brian Malloy

But if Randy’s death taught me anything, it’s that life is short. I know it’s nuts, it’s impulsive, I haven’t thought it through at all. But sometimes, Kevin, you just have to say ‘what the heck?’ and take a chance. [144] The Year of Ice follows a year in the life of Kevin Doyle, who [...]

Hint, Hint: Holiday Wishlist?

With the holiday season now upon us, have you left any hint – subtle or otherwise – for books family and friends might buy you for Christmas? Do you like to receive books, or do you prefer certificates so you can choose your own? I do not drop hints for books anyone might acquire for [...]