This week I finished a nearly-three-month reading project, wading through Charles Taylor’s massive A Secular Age. It’s a brilliant and dense book, the kind we often shy away from because reading it is an investment. This one sat on my TBR pile for years, so much so that it needed a good dusting before I began reading it. In my review, I summarize the main argument of the book, what I thought important and questions it left me with. I also offered reading tips for working through the book that might apply to other big, dense and important books. I try to read one of these at least a year.
And while I was reading, I learned that Taylor, now in his 80’s has just published a new book, Cosmic Connections. In it, he looks at some of the issues raised in A Secular Age through the lens of the poetry of the Romantics. “How Poetry Responds to a Disenchanted World” is a review of the book in The National Review.
Five Articles Worth Reading
It’s the season for camping. And what is a campout without some good campfire stories? In “How to Tell a Great Campfire Story,” Atlas Obscura asked some great storytellers for their tips for telling a good campfire story. This is great advice for writers as well.
Do you use any method to keep track of the books you read? Some of us just look at our shelves. “94-Year-Old Grandmother Kept Meticulous Book Log for 80 Years” tells the story with a pictures of a woman who began keeping a reading log at age 14, logging 1658 books over 80 years!
Many people do at least some of their reading with audiobooks. Maybe that’s something you’d like to try for that long drive or while exercising. Bookriot posted “Libro.fm’s Bestselling Audiobooks of All Time.” What’s great about this list is that it includes the narrator for each book.
Traditionally, authors are encouraged to promote books through social media platforms, book tours, and readings. Emily Smith has done none of that and she’s had five number one best sellers in a row. The New York Times covered how she does it in “Emily Henry on Writing Best-Sellers Without Tours and TikTok.”
Speaking of TikTok, the controversial video sharing platform owned in China. The hashtag #BookTok has become a powerful tool for promoting books, by authors, media influencers, and publishers. And what’s not to like about selling more books? Jackie Jennings explores a possible dark side of all this in “The Problem With BookTok Isn’t the Pretty Influencers or the Fantasy Books.”
Quote of the Week
I came across this quote from Louisa May Alcott that seems good life advice for all of us:
“Keep good company, read good books, love good things, and cultivate soul and body as faithfully as you can.”
Miscellaneous Musings
Augustine wrote The City of God following the sack of Rome in 410, evidence of the declining Roman empire.. I’ve been wondering if it is time for me to re-read this great work in light of our political and cultural landscape.
On a lighter note, I’m 80 pages into Purgatory Ridge, the third of William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor books. Like previous books, his writing evokes the landscape of northern Minnesota and he makes you turn the page. Louise Penny got me through the pandemic. I’m thinking William Kent Krueger will get me through the 2024 election!
This was a banner week at my mailbox. The Willie Mays biography I mentioned last week arrived. Two books of readings, one on gratitude and an early arrival for Advent came from the good folks at Paraclete Press. The second Maus book arrived (I fail to see the fuss, at least in the first book, which I’m reading, unless you want to deny the Holocaust). I was also pleased to get a copy of a new edition of George MacDonald’s Diary of An Old Soul from InterVarsity Press. I love MacDonald. And there were a few others you will hear about down the road. I really need to treat my mail carrier well!
Well, that’s a wrap!