When Our Kids Like Different Books
An unusual event happened yesterday. I posted about a book I’m reading (Challenger by Adam Higgenbotham). My son commented that he wanted to read it when I finished it. This doesn’t happen very often. We generally read very different stuff, despite all the stories we read together when he was young.
This brings to mind Dave Kim’s story of all the books he gave his son. And what did he want? Heidi! “I Gave My Son the Books I Loved. He Chose ‘Heidi’ Instead” is a touching account of bonds between father and son when reading tastes differed.
That’s the opportunity when tastes differ. If nothing else, my son has introduced me to graphic novels and reminded me of how much I enjoyed math puzzle books when I was young. He reads science fiction published after the 1970’s! I have given him some Octavia E. Butler books as well as my Bradbury and Asimov collections.
Nearly always, he chooses great gifts of books–often things off my beaten paths that usually turn out to be pretty good reads. Because much of what he reads is technical math stuff, he gives me reading lists for gifts suggestions.
The one corollary of our differing tastes is that he has no interest in inheriting nearly any of my books! So an interesting task of these years is finding them a good home through donations and re-selling. And I wondered what I’d be doing in retirement?
Five Articles Worth Reading
I don’t know a single bibliophile who gets enough time to read. “So many books; so little time” is our mantra. In “Maximizing Time for Reading,” Blake Butler offers some great reading hacks for making the most of our time, and for reading widely.
Butler mentions reading Thomas Pynchon several times in his article. I came across this profile from 2013 of Pynchon, “On the Thomas Pynchon Trail: From the Long Island of His Boyhood to the ‘Yupper West Side’ of His New Novel.” He’s a recluse and something of an enigma. I’ve never tackled him and I wonder if I will. Should I?
Antigone, a website dedicated the Greek and Latin classics, reproduced “Machines or Mind? The Essay that Launched the Loebs,” written by W.H.D. Rouse, editor of the Loeb Classical Library series, in 1911. The series is well-known among classicists for 9its volumes in green cloth (Greek) or red cloth (Latin). In it, he enthusiastically answers the question, “What is the use of Greek and Latin literature?”
A particular use of literature through the ages has been to explore why human beings live in a tension of vice and virtue. Ed Simon explores this in the LitHub article “Deadly Sins and Heavenly Virtues: On the Timeless Duality of Being Human.”
This week, Samantha Harvey won the prestigious Booker Prize for Orbital, beating out the likes of Percival Everett and Rachel Kushner. The novel’s focus is on astronauts and cosmonauts orbiting the earth and what they experience. The New York Times profiles her and the book in “Samantha Harvey’s ‘Orbital’ Wins 2024 Booker Prize.” The book was new to me, but I just ordered it.
Quote of the Week
Robert Louis Stevenson was born on November 13, 1850. He anticipates our modern day “thankfulness journals” when he writes:
“Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.”
Miscellaneous Musings
I finished Bob Woodward’s War the other day. What most struck me in this week of cabinet appointments was the experienced, highly competent, and dedicated people who are advising President Biden through the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel. There is far more than a political agenda at stake.
I’ve read two books recently that have touched on the friendship between revivalist George Whitefield and Ben Franklin, a theist at best. Each immeasurably helped the other in a friendship that had an incalculable impact on our history. Whitefield never succeeded in converting Franklin. Franklin failed to persuade Whitefield to ease up on his relentless pace. But the two men profoundly respected each other. Would that there were more such friendships.
There has been a significant exodus from X, formerly known as Twitter, since the election. I haven’t left (yet), but my follower counts have dropped noticeably. Many have migrated to Bluesky, which mirrors the look and vibe of early Twitter. One of those migrants yesterday was Stephen King, who wrote, “I quit Twitter. Eleven years, man. It really changed. Grew dark.” If Stephen King thinks it is dark…
I created an account this week and you can find me @bobonbooks.bsky.social. One cool feature is “starter packs” which connect you to others with similar interests.
Next Week’s Reviews
A new feature at The Weekly Wrap is simply a list of the books I’ll be reviewing next week. This is subject to some change due to reading time and life events. Here’s next week’s lineup:
Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf (her latest)
Sarah E. Westfall, The Way of Belonging
Ellis Peters, The Holy Thief (the nineteenth in the Cadfael series)
Elesha J. Coffman, Turning Points in American Church History
I may have one other–stay tuned!
Well, that’s The Weekly Wrap for November 10-16, 2024!
Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.