Challenges

2019:




2019—2024: 


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Reading Everything in August

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No, that is not the title of a challenge...but it may as well be.  I'm up to my ears in books and it's wonderful. Sweet peas and ocean breezes    ♥ I spent most of my July weekends working on a large volunteer project for a non-profit.  It was a beneficial experience, but more of a commitment than I realized.  Now that that's pretty much wrapped up, I can turn back to books. Here's a quick list of what I'll be reading this month, at different levels of undivided attention and in no particular order: 1984 - George Orwell Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne Master and Commander - Patrick O'Brian Drawn from Memory - Ernest Shepard (illustrator of the original Winnie the Pooh) Psalms (almost finished) Tesla biography (yes, still) Smart People Should Build Things and The War on Normal People - Andrew Yang Nostromo - Joseph Conrad Moby-Dick - Herman Melville Other??  There's sure to be more. I probably mentioned bef...
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Wit and Wisdom in Chesterton's Heretics

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This year's reading is off to a good start, not so much in terms of speed (work and other activities have put the brakes on that) but in terms of content.  I've just finished G. K. Chesterton's Heretics , a light book for heavy hearts of little-'o' orthodox Christians who happen to be classic literature nerds.  Since I fall under that category, I found Heretics to be a bracing read and surprisingly relevant for the current times.  Chesterton is a hit-and-miss author for me; this book was definitely a "hit." George Bernard Shaw, Hilaire Belloc, and G. K. Chesterton. Heretics (1905) comes under one of my favorite niche genres - authors writing about other authors.  In this series of essays, Chesterton critiques such literary luminaries as Rudyard Kipling , H. G. Wells , and George Bernard Shaw, as well as others who have since fallen out of readership.  Imperialism, Nietzsche's Superman, human progress, and other topics of the day are covered he...
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Mid-Century Dystopia, Part 2: Nineteen Eighty-Four

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Nineteen Eight-Four marks the third famous classic to disappoint me in recent years.  Along with The Odyssey and The Divine Comedy , it would have been left unfinished early on, except for its mammoth legacy and the feeling that I ought to read it.  It's possible I lack the maturity or life experience to appreciate these books - I leave that open as an explanation.  But for the time being, I'll express my unpopular opinion, which isn't without basis.  (For my personal dystopian literature criteria, see part 1 .) England, Except Not England Winston Smith, our very Britishly named protagonist, resides in England of the 1980s.  Now called "Airstrip One," England is a mere drop in the empire that is Oceania, and its once-vivid culture has likewise been largely eaten up by the propaganda of the ruling one-party state.  All citizens are expected to revere Big Brother, the vague yet menacing figurehead of the Party, and in so doing are closely monitored ...
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