Classics Considered

Meet Ned, a new resident of the Bookcase. Wow, it's already New Year's Eve Eve!  Christmas festivities are sadly winding down...  Tomorrow, people will wait outside in the freezing cold to ring in 2018, and I'll be in my snug, warm house, probably curled up with Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night , thus attempting to relive a New Year's memory from three years back .  Though surprising at times, 2017 has been a good year for me, and as someone who gets post-holiday blues, a book can help ease the transition into the next one. I've talked already about 2017 in review , and how I've decided not to take on any more reading challenges , as tempting as they are.  That said, a few goals for 2018 have been floating around in my mind (I love the word "goal" because, for some reason, it sounds more flexible to me than "plan").   Here's a few of my open-ended reading goals for next year: Bring back Book Journals.   I have quite a few chunksters o...

The Art of War would be better marketed today as "The Art of Problem Solving."  As far as warfare goes, you won't find anything here that has not been amply represented in documentaries, novels, movies, and current events.  I guess we are (morbidly) privileged in the 21st century to have seen Sun Tzu 's advice played out, as well as ignored, in countless brutal conflicts, so reading this as a guide to war brings nothing new to the modern, armchair reader.  Read as a metaphor for IT project management, however, this book still offers good guidance on how to be an effective leader and make optimal use of resources to solve problems.  Though discipline is emphasized, he also highlights the necessity of being flexible and using brains over sheer strength.  The time he spends on the psychology of the players, including the enemy and one's own forces, reminded me of T. E. Lawrence's tactics in the Middle East.  Information is critical to identifying victory, so ...

It's mid-December already - can you believe it?! According to Goodreads , I read 36 books this year.  (A couple of those were "did not finish"s, but apparently those count, too.)  It was twice as much as I committed to, and I don't say that to brag; it was more of an accident than anything. You see, I started out the the year intending to read very specifically: learn to read French, read through the whole Bible, read longer books, read challenges, etc.  I've mentioned earlier this year some lessons learned in this area, which pretty much explain my "reading schedule" (or lack thereof, as it turned out). 2017 was a year of learning for me, nonetheless: Though I didn't stick with French, I did read several UX books for work, which made a life-changing impact on my day job. I read four plays ( three by Arthur Miller ) and discovered the literary greatness of that genre. My coworker lent me a 699 page biography of T. E. Lawrence.  Not only do I now kn...

Alice...one of the toughest and bravest "strong heroines" nobody talks about.  She's only seven-and-a-half exactly. A day late, but better late than never, right?  This week's Top Ten Tuesday focuses on books that have "touched your heart and left you feeling SO thankful that it was written."  Narrowing this down to ten classic fictional books has been even more difficult than it should probably be...but here goes! 1.  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , and Through the Looking-Glas s, by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel For as long as I can remember, Alice is a character I've identified with, in her search for home and logic in a place of strangeness and illusion.  Carroll's witty silliness has forever influenced my own sense of humor and indirectly helped me become the "literary techie" I am.  Let's not forget Tenniel, either, whose illustrations bring it all to (sur)reality! 2. The Secret Garden , by Frances Hodgson Bur...

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is all about titles of books that are more unique than trendy.  I may not have mentioned before that I love, love, love a good book title, so this topic particularly appeals to me.  ;) Without further ado, here are some unique ones from classic literature: 1. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale , by Herman Melville It doesn't get more signature than this. Melville chose interesting names for all the characters, not least of all the whale. 2. Perelandra , by C. S. Lewis The surest way to have a unique title is to use a word from your own fictional language! 3. Magellania , by Jules Verne Alternatively, taking a nonfictional place and making it more "literary" also works. 4. The Lighthouse at the End of the World , by Jules Verne Probably my favorite book title of all time.  He used "lighthouse" in a title before it was trendy. Rather than overrun this list with Jules Verne, I will just add that most of his titles were unique in his day.  (He...

Starting a little late here - but hey, with four hours of extra sleep, I have that much more energy for the rest of the readathon!  ;) Going to follow Cirtnecce 's example and update this post as often as possible.  Stay tuned and check back! Hour 12 . . . Mid-Event Survey : 1. What are you reading right now? Well, I just finished Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia , which I've been reading since June.  His story always gets me...  I got teary near the end. 2. How many books have you read so far? Two!  But one of those involved 90 pages chock-full of history.  My brain is swimming with information. 3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? I'm still looking forward to Bambi . ^_^  But The Lord of the World also intrigues me! 4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? No, it's been a blissful day at home. 5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? I'm really su...

Once again, I'm gearing up for Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon , starting in five hours!  I enjoyed this event so much last time that, as soon as I heard there was a fall edition, I put it on my calendar.  It's not so much that I stay up the full 24 hours - no, indeed - but it's such a great, fun time to read a lot of different books and eat candy (oops). As before, I'll be posting updates to Instagram and Goodreads , as well as maybe some reviews here.  Let me know if you're also participating! The lineup:  Finish Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia / Michael Korda Journey Through the Impossible / Jules Verne Peter Pan / J. M. Barrie Rhett & Link's Book of Mythicality / Rhett and Link Bambi (ebook) / Felix Salten Stretch goals: The Lord of the World (ebook) / Robert Hugh Benson Kidnapped (re-read) / Robert Louis Stevenson