On Reading
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The year of reading old books
This year, I am doing something that feels unnatural to me. Instead of going out and looking for new books to add to my shelves, I’m going to look at those shelves for books I already own. It is not necessarily in the spirit of anti-consumption, for if I won the lottery, I would still…
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A Witchy Sort of Reading List
In order to write about a wood witch, I sought to read books about witches who are unafraid of what they are or who are only just discovering it.
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What I’m Reading In October
What are you reading this month? Do you arrange your to-read pile based on the seasons, or do you prefer to read on a whim? It’s a bit of both for me; I have some spooky options as well as classics in this list.
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Your Favorite Author?
It takes a while to discover which authors you might call ‘favorites.’ I, for one, tend to bounce from book to book, rarely lingering on a single author unless they wrote classics. Charles Dickens has been a favorite author of mine from the start—I read A Christmas Carol every Christmas Eve!—but apart from him, I…
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5 Books Set In Paris (Part 1)
Before I had the opportunity to visit Paris with my wonderful mom and brother last year, I had a theory. I told myself that, if I found and read enough books set in Paris, I could pretend I had been there before. With each book that I read set in Paris, I believed that the…
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The Written World by Martin Puchner
On the surface, The Written World looks to be a history book on the topic of literature. I discovered it was something deeper, far more delightful. Author Martin Puchner has a love for books much like my own; this book is his journey to find the soul of literature, the source of her power, the…
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The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
After one month in its pages, I have finished The Pickwick Papers. It is part of my 2019 Classic Novel Challenge, one of the longer ones on the list. I’m unable to critique writing by my favorite author. How can I nitpick the gripping prose, the humorous twists and turns, the delightful poetry? I cannot…
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The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
The first book I read for my 2019 reading challenge, The Mayor of Casterbridge, is compelling because of its characters. Though there are many, it focuses on a man named Michael Henchard, a man none of us would envy. It is the story of a mistake he made as a young man and how this mistake…
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The 2019 Reading List
In this post, I spoke about my New Year’s Resolution: to read 30 classic novels—or at least attempt to read them—in order to work through my bookshelf. Collecting books is a beautiful thing, but that’s only half the fun; the magic is in reading them! I said I would post my reading list when it…
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Around the Literary World in a Year
A new year always brings with it pressure to come up with a resolution. Though setting goals often feels like a trend, I don’t like ignoring a clean slate. I don’t plan to do anything mind-blowing this year, but I know where I hope to be when roaring 2020 comes in. Writing-wise, 2019 will see…
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David Copperfield: Escapism and Books
Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield is, in many respects, autobiographical. Readers see the protagonist in bleak situations, many of which take root in things the author himself experienced–child abuse, poverty, instances when it was difficult to count one’s blessings. As a reader and writer, the following paragraph stood out to me. It describes Copperfield as a…
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Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten
Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls—the book title was clever. I’m not sure what I expected to find once I started reading. This is a good thing. Any book title is used to draw readers in: it makes them want to lift the cover and glance at the first page, where there should be a hook.…
Mariella Hunt & the Tearoom 