tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post3936399611369411789..comments2024-03-28T17:53:43.541-04:00Comments on DarwinCatholic: Immediate Book MemeDarwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-2518790673678780162017-09-16T11:33:37.254-04:002017-09-16T11:33:37.254-04:00Joseph Moore,
I'm enjoying Selfish Gene prett...Joseph Moore,<br /><br />I'm enjoying Selfish Gene pretty well myself. Someone had said I should try Adaptation and Natural Selection by George Williams, saying it was a book which had held up better. (Dawkins cites it as a major influence in Selfish Gene.) So I'm reading that as well now.<br /><br />It's pretty good, though I'm concerned it's not as readable as Selfish Gene. Dawkins' style really is quite readable in that book.<br /><br />Finicky Cat,<br /><br />It does seem like a lot of Dickens novels start with a hundred pages or more of dreary and abusive childhood. Bleak House mostly steers around that, if you wanted to try that.Darwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-61803603483426217122017-09-13T19:57:22.826-04:002017-09-13T19:57:22.826-04:00I've never participated in one of these before...I've never participated in one of these before!<br /><br />1. In my personal reading, I am between books. It feels bad. But I am a binge-reader of fiction - I hate putting down an unfinished story - so it's also my usual state. Otherwise I'd get nothing else done.<br /><br />To the kids, I'm reading aloud four books:<br /><br />Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray (1942) - Newbery Award historical fiction set in England, 1294.<br /><br />St. Thomas Aquinas by Brendan Larnen, OP, and Milton Lomask (1956) - Vision Books' very engaging bio for children. We really like it...and we're a tough crowd for this kind of thing.<br /><br />The Children's Illustrated Bible by Selina Hastings (1994) - two chapters daily after lunch with lots of interposed commentary and occasional recourses to The Real Thing.<br /><br />The Man Born to Be King by Dorothy L. Sayers (1941) - twelve radio plays on the life of Christ originally produced mid-War by BBC Radio. I voice-act all the parts, so tremendously fun and tremendously tiring. This is one of my favourite books and an all-time favourite read-aloud.<br /><br />In the van, we're listening to Great Expectations on audiobook, our first Dickens besides A Christmas Carol. The reader is excellent, but so far we don't like the story much. Does anybody have a more cheerful Dickens piece to recommend?<br /><br />2.Personal reading, Innocence by Dean Koontz (2013), finished last night at 11:30. Only the second of his books that I've encountered. An interesting lightweight thriller with a wonderfully Catholic philosophic foundation.<br /><br />To the family, I recently finished Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang by Ian Fleming (1964) - a family favourite delightful to read aloud, although I wouldn't want a steady diet of his colourless childlike mother-figures - and also The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle (1883). The characters' archaic speech makes it a challenge to read aloud, though not as tough as Shakespeare; it's by far my favourite version of Robin Hood.<br /><br />3. For myself, um...no specific plans, sadly. Something with a happy ending. Something I can read in six hours or less. Something with enough depth to feel worth six hours of my life and staying up too late, but accessible enough to be entertainment.<br /><br />For the family, more stories and biographies from the middle ages on into the renaissance. I'd have to go check my chronologically-arranged history bookshelf to see what's up next...and if I get up now, I'll have to make dinner and then I'll never bet back to this list. (Recommendations welcomed for our history study, by the way!)<br /><br />4. Usually the shelf behind my bed holds a dusty discouraging stack of books that turned out too heavy for my leisure hours, but I put them all away a few months ago and haven't looked back!<br /><br />5. When sorting out the bookcases a year ago, I discovered we had three childrens' biographies EACH of Elizabeth Blackwell, Thomas Edison, and Helen Keller. I set them aside, meaning to skim through them and just keep the best one, but...haven't gotten to it.<br /><br />6. For myself, see #3 and #4. For reading to the kids, see #3.<br /><br />Thanks for the fun, Darwins!<br />Finicky Cathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06096968677045137455noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-22025740843052692892017-09-08T13:52:56.320-04:002017-09-08T13:52:56.320-04:00OK:
1. What book are you reading now?
A History...OK: <br /><br />1. What book are you reading now?<br /><br />A History of Florence and the Affairs of Italy - Machiavelli. <br />Rock and Roll: the New Madrid Fault System - Stephanie Osborn<br /><br />2. What book did you just finish?<br /><br />Riverworld - Phillip Jose Farmer (it's a novella, really) <br />City of Corpses - # 5 in a series of YA novels by John C. Wright - highly recommended. <br /><br />3. What do you plan to read next?<br /><br />Okla Hannali - Lafferty<br />Locke - Feser<br /><br />4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?<br /><br />Phenomenology of Spirit - Hegel. Want to do it justice, but slog doesn't begin to describe it. Loathsome philosophy as well. <br /><br />5. What book do you keep meaning to start?<br /><br />Oh, man. War and Peace, which I got maybe 500+ pages 35 years ago, but never finished. Loved it, just too long for my undisciplined youth. <br /><br />6. What is your current reading trend?<br /><br />Philosophy and history over here, little SF&F over there, science in smallish doses. A bookshelf of education history and biography sneers at me...<br /><br />BTW: I really liked Selfish Gene, read it a few times - there are maybe one or two pot shots at religious people in it, but nothing too drastic especially by current standards. Of course, love Origin of Species. Joseph Moorehttps://yardsaleofthemind.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-14789684317165013722017-09-08T13:33:21.181-04:002017-09-08T13:33:21.181-04:00Here's my contribution!
http://www.patheos.co...Here's my contribution!<br /><br />http://www.patheos.com/blogs/peaceandpekoe/2017/09/immediate-book-meme-sqt.html<br /><br />Thanks for giving me something cheerful to write about. I was getting pretty mired in political angst. Katehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03787892622804373968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-34690814020168476812017-09-08T09:11:26.964-04:002017-09-08T09:11:26.964-04:00My own answers are as follows:
1. What book are y...My own answers are as follows:<br /><br />1. What book are you reading now?<br /><br />Post War by Tony Judt (three quarters done via audiobook)<br /><br />The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (this is Dawkin's actual biology book -- in contrast to his pop atheism books -- and I'm reading it over to decide if I should include it in Eleanor's high school biology reading course)<br /><br />2. What book did you just finish?<br /><br />Crazy U by Andrew Ferguson<br /><br />Iron Curtain by Anne Applebaum<br /><br />3. What do you plan to read next?<br /><br />I need to decide. I'm just finishing a self selected reading course on post war Europe (Woman in Berlin; Savage Continent, Iron Curtain; Post War) and I don't have a next read planned yet.<br /><br />4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?<br /><br />I finally knocked off my "meaning to finish" book lately, Verdun by Jules Romains, a well written but easy to put down mid century novel which took me more than a year of waiting room reading to finish.<br /><br />5. What book do you keep meaning to start?<br /><br />I picked up Simon Tolkien's No Man's Land thinking it would be my next read, but it's been sitting unread on my bedside table for nearly a year.<br /><br />6. What is your current reading trend?<br /><br />The above mentioned post-WW2 Europe reading list.Darwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-86222527619133709832017-09-08T08:35:43.694-04:002017-09-08T08:35:43.694-04:001. What book are you reading now?
Martin Chuzzlew...1. What book are you reading now?<br /><br /><i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i> (Charles Dickens);<br /><i>Funhouse</i> (Dean Koontz);<br /><i>High Rising</i> (Angela Thirkell).<br /><br />2. What book did you just finish?<br /><br />They just went back to the library, so I don't have all titles/authors:<br /><br />A biography of Louis Pasteur;<br />A short biography of Lewis Carroll with an emphasis on his mathematical works;<br />A biography of Flannery O'Connor;<br /><i>The Good Guy</i> (Dean Koontz).<br /><br />3. What do you plan to read next?<br /><br />I don't know - it's a matter of whim which book I read (or these days, mostly, re-read) next.<br /><br />4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?<br /><br /><i>The Anatomy of Melancholy</i> (Robert Burton).<br /><br />5. What book do you keep meaning to start?<br /><br />See #3.<br /><br />6. What is your current reading trend?<br /><br />Binge.Bob the Apehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07936116905131702801noreply@blogger.com