Notes from the Reading Chair

"Look at a biblioholic's living quarters.  If he or she has furniture--not all biblioholics do--one particular item will leap out and grab your attention: the biblioholic's reading chair...the armrests will be worn through.  With the right light, you can comb your hair in the reflection off the cushions.  The springs will be shot.  And sit down in the thing and your fanny will bounce three feet off the floor....it is where communion between biblioholic and book takes place, and any monkeying around with the authenticity of that place is aesthetically unnerving." ~Tom Raabe, Biblioholism

Each week I hope to post some thoughts from our readings as well as offerings for the commonplace books.  What interesting discussions we've had this week as a result of our varied reads!

I'm enjoying Douglas Wilson's biography of Anne Bradstreet, the Puritan poet.  He does a thorough job of not only painting a portrait  of Anne's life but also correcting many misunderstandings about Puritan life in general. 

For instance, did you know that...

~Puritans were not opposed to alcohol but it was in fact a daily part of their lives.
~Puritans were not hostile to Christmas itself but instead to the way Christmas was celebrated at that time.
~Despite characterizations of Puritans as "wannabe ayatollahs and manufacturers of scarlet letters," their criminal laws were based mostly on the Mosaic Code and were actually not as harsh as the laws in England

One of my favorite passages is Mr. Wilson's description of Anne's perspective on her life's purpose.

Her identity was not that of a poet.  She did not adopt poetry as a minor "career."  She was a wife and a mother, and she used her poetic gifts from the vantage point of that identity.  She did not cling to them as a substitute for that identity.  When she later wrote down a prose account of her life for her children, she did not mention her poetry at all.  Our tendency is to remember her life in terms of her poetry.  When she recalled her life, she did so in terms of her God and her family.

Wilson also addresses many of the attempts by feminists to ascribe to Anne characteristics of discontent and theological difficulties that simply aren't reflected in her life and her poetry.

In David Allen's Ready for Anything, I found these words an encouraging jumpstart to tackle some of those less-than-desirable tasks before me.

Completion of open loops, whether they be major projects or boxes of old stuff we've yet to purge and organize, prepares the ground for cleaner, clearer, and more complete energy for whatever shows up.  We're often not sure what's next or what to tackle.  At that point just clean or complete something--something obvious and in front of you, right away.  Soon you'll have the energy and clarity to know what's next, and you'll have cleared the decks for more effective responsiveness on every front.  Process your in-basket, purge your e-mails, or clean your center desk drawer.  You've got to do it sometime anyway.

Little Big Man finished Gary DeMar's Memory Mechanics and summed up his opinion on the book in these simple terms, "The tricks suggested for memorizing things are much more complicated than just memorizing what you have to memorize."  He's half-way through G.A. Henty's The Dash for Khartoum and recommends it, saying it's his favorite Henty book thus far.

Mountain Man finished up Whatever Happened to Justice and was more than a bit surprised by what he read.  It was all new information and definitely not what he was taught in his public school government classes.  Recommended!

He's now into The Search for God and Guinness by Stephen Mansfield and is finding it very enjoyable.  Can you imagine these benefits of a Guinness worker during the 1920's:

~full medical and dental care
~massage services
~reading rooms
~subsidized meals
~a company-funded pension
~subsidies for funeral expenses
~education benefits
~sports facilities
~free concerts, lectures and entertainment
~2 pints of Guinness beer a day

Arthur and Olivia Guinness had 10 children, four girls and six boys.   "What this happy list of deeply loved children does not betray is there were actually twenty-one pregnancies but Olivia miscarried eleven times.  She must have been a sturdy, courageous woman.  Despite her losses, she kept having children until 1781, when she was in her late forties."  And no, the Guinnesses weren't Catholic or Mormon, and I'm sure they knew what caused "that." :)

Happy Reading!
~Queen Mom