Getting New 'Eyes' & Wisdom Whilst Reading...

I have been reading The Book of Lost Things... there are some great quotes and beautiful wordings to be found in there.
Although, I must say, John Connolly's sense of creativity makes me wonder about him a little much! If you like Lewis Carroll, and Grimm's grim fairy tales, then this is definitely the book for you... it's odd. Amusing? Yes. Gripping? Sure. But also quite oddly done...

As for me, not sure if I'll finish it. (Pro'l'y will.) But still not sure, as I'm only a couple chapters in so far and it's getting more & more interesting (yes) but also weirder & weirder (!) Kind of reminds me of Sylvie & Bruno crossed with The Hobbit crossed with The Smithsonian Book of Books.
All that being said, there were several good quotes to be found & noted in the first pages. I thought the following one was the best, and good enough to share:

"I think the act of reading imbues the reader with a sensitivity toward the outside world that people who don’t read can sometimes lack. I know it seems like a contradiction in terms; after all reading is such a solitary, internalizing act that it appears to represent a disengagement from day-to-day life. But reading, and particularly the reading of fiction, encourages us to view the world in new and challenging ways…It allows us to inhabit the consciousness of another which is a precursor to empathy, and empathy is, for me, one of the marks of a decent human being."

– John Connolly (The Book of Lost Things)

That quote was the best part of the book so far....for me anyway.
Well, besides the fact that books talk in this story! Just imagine what it'd be like to hear books talking! It boggles the mind to think of all the widely different things they'd be clamoring to say to us!
Fun to think of. :)

So, what do you think? Have you read this book (or any of Connolly's other popular fiction works)?
The quote I shared has several little holes in it's 'fabric', I know. Not everything in the world can be solved by sitting down and delving into a fictional book to make 'extracts' from it! In fact, many, many  things can't be accomplished to any success that way. Book-worming is fun, but it should be used as a tool for learning &  the ''getting of wisdom'' (Proverbs 4:5).

P.S.~ Thanks everybody for sharing your top book choices with me!
I received quite a few wonderful recommendations. Many of which I hope to read & review very soon. :]

1 Book, 2 Books, Red Book, Blue Book....

This shall be a post for my own personal gain!
Just warning you! ;)

I would like to asking my reading friends what are the top 3 books you've read & enjoyed this year?
The ones that you can think of first, and you enjoyed reading the most.

The reason I ask is because...

1. I'm a book worm! Bookworms crave more books! One or two is never enough...
2.  I'm on a challenge to read more books this years than I ever have before (way over 250 hopefully!)
3. I genuinely want to know what you guys like to read. :)

So, pretty please, tell me your book favorites in the comments, ya'll!
Or, if you have a Shelfari account like I do, you can just recommend the books right to me through that. :)

{I need this clock. I think it would help me keep track of my time better...}

Charles Dodgson's Art

Maybe you know him only by the name "Lewis Carroll" (his pen name),
and maybe you don't know about him at all...

That's alright! Let me enlighten you about one of my favorite authors, poets, and photographers: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland and the Through the Looking Glass tales & many others.

You may mentally chide me for even referencing it ( I would too!), but Wikipedia really summarizes it best:

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (pronounced /ˈdɒdsən/ dod-sən; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll (/ˈkærəl/ karr-əl), was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the Snark" and "Jabberwocky", all examples of the genre of literary nonsense. He is noted for his facility at word play, logic, and fantasy, and there are societies dedicated to the enjoyment and promotion of his works and the investigation of his life in many parts of the world, including the United Kingdom, Japan, the United States, and New Zealand.

 He really was an interesting person. I have read several biographies on him and what truly amuses me the most is just how widely all of his biographers differ in opinion on his life & person! You have everything from some claiming he was an insane, drugged-out pedophile all the way to saying that he was a genius and a saint! (Personally I don't believe either of those extremes.)

The fact that he was a mathematician is generally not known as well as his authorship. But he was indeed all those things--a man of many interests, if not many proficient talents. He was smart & witty, if extremely shy/reserved in person. He seemed to prefer the company of children rather than adults (which I can sometimes identify with quite well.) He found his lyrical, comical literary voice first through telling stories that baffled, amused and entertained his little friends...and then later the wider world.

One thing is for sure: if you are going to study literature, and especially English lit, you can't ignore Lewis Carroll. He left a mark on our world.

Now, onto the most interesting pieces of his history that I've been digging up about him...

...his photography.

In addition to being a poet, deacon, mathematician, & all those other things, Charles Dodgson was a photographer. In his time, I suppose he would have been considered just another amateur, but I think his work had a timeless, lasting & highly artistic quality about it. For a while, I couldn't seem to locate any of these photographs of his that were talked about so much, other than the one of Alice Liddell (the girl whose name & person inspired Alice from his books) leaning up against an ivy wall as a ''beggar child''.

But now....I am proud to say, I have scrounged up several more photographs that he took, and now, I present them to you here:

{Click to make some larger.}

Alice Liddell (right) and older sister Lorina (left).

Alice Liddell

young Alice Liddell

"The Beggar Girl" aka Alice Liddell

Alice Liddell as a young woman.

Self portrait of Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson.

Edith, Lorina & Alice Liddell (L to R)

Mrs Liddell, her girls, Charles Dodgson & another young friend.

Edith, Lorina & Alice

 

Are they not just beautiful? 

Looking at them makes me wish I had a old tintype camera to play with, and that I still had my film Canon SLR too! Ah, well. I still have my appreciation for the arts, my tiny Canon digital, and my love of photography. :) That's enough for now.

I'm in Love....Yep.

Cybele's Secret

&

Wildwood Dancing

Did you hear? I know there's this little bird...he gets around....or maybe you haven't heard?

Well, in any case, let me be the first to tell you: I just fell in love. It's true!

I fell in love with Juliet Marillier & her books....specifically Wildwood Dancing and Cybele's Secret. I discovered them whilst perusing blogs...and I found this one blog of especially note (for it's prettiness & creativity!)....Fairytales, French Fries and Baby Kisses by name....kept by two sisters, I believe. Lovely blog. :)

And.....and.... way down hidden amongst older posts, I found this post which was more than enough to pique me curiosity. So, I looked them up at my library, found out that we have almost all her books (yay!) and checked out the two books above to start with.

What did I find?

I rediscovered two things through this book........ my love of fairytales (I love love love them!)

and ......my love of Romania. That's right! These are Romanian fairytale stories!

Needless to say, there's not much else to say......I've read each book twice already since Wednesday, and I've got the others on hold at the library......

Thank you, Bethany & Esther. :)

I am Very Grateful for...

the bonds of family

photographic inspiration

excellent books of poetry to devour late at night

  

the bright sunshine warming my back

new films to look forward to

the miniature spring flowers coming up everywhere!

quotes that tickle my brain

tiny, adorable animals

...and last but not least:
new Scripture to keep close & write down.

In that day you will sing:
      “I will praise you, O Lord!
   You were angry with me, but not any more.
      Now you comfort me.
 See, God has come to save me.
      I will trust in him and not be afraid.
   The Lord God is my strength and my song;
      he has given me victory.”

 With joy you will drink deeply
      from the fountain of salvation! *

What are you Very Grateful for?

A Tale About Alice

Life is full of surprises.   For my birthday (which was last Saturday, the 12th) I received a very special book from a friend of mine. It was a book on one of my favorite subjects: Alice, from the Alice in Wonderland book tales!
This book was a story in which the authoress, Melanie Benjamin, mixed the fact and fiction surrounding Alice Pleasance Liddell's and Rev. Charles Dodgson's (aka Lewis Carroll's) lives into a quaint, curious tale that both entertains fully as well as leaves you puzzling... "so what was the real story?"

My favorite thing about this book (besides the cover, and inside photographs of the real Alice!) was the way Benjamin wrote the tale: in the present, first-person. This is my favorite way to write and read a book, however I seldom find it used and especially not to this extent! This alone made it a very enjoyable read for me.

    Other than that all that, all you need to know before running our & buying or borrowing this book is that you probably should read up on the real story first, if you want to be able to distinguish it through the reading. Now, if that's no concern for you, and you just want it all to blend together beautifully in your head:this is the perfect story for that. :) Go right on ahead...
    Also, Melanie Benjamin really did her homework on the facts that we do know about the two families. So, if you're any sort of a historical AiW buff, you will really enjoy (like I did) all the little details carefully tucked in the story!

Just don't forget to, 

"Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop." *

~Hannah