One’s reading list is a direct window into the values, slant and intellect of a person, which is why “what are you reading now?” is a wonderful and curious ice-breaking question.

What are you reading now?

Reading books of all types remains an all-consuming pastime for our family. We devour books individually, but travel-schooling has allowed us the chance to read together as well.

WE LOVE THIS. When we read together, we find many instances to relate literature to our daily lives. Our dinner-time discussions are rich with literary reference and empathy towards characters in real-life.

Current events are compared to our knowledge of world history – conjoining books we have read in genres of non-fiction, poetry, historical fiction and biographies.  Modern-day (yes, sometimes political) personalities remind us of characters in books that we have admired or pitied.

“Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.” ~ C.S. Lewis

Reading adds value and understanding to a complicated world.  I believe reading fiction, in particular,  enables us to understand other people, empathize with them and view the world from different perspectives.

Reading, combined with extensive travel is a magical combination for adults and children alike. So many books, so little time!

“Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean.” – Anne Lamott

Research also shows that deep reading – “slow, immersive, rich in sensory detail and emotional and moral complexity – is a distinctive experience, a kind of reading that differs in kind and quality from the mere decoding of words…”  shares writer Karen Swallow Prior.  Reading magazines, or newspaper articles is not READING, it’s just getting information. Not. the same thing.

While in Key West, we visited Hemingway’s studio where he wrote many of his books until the 1940’s. 

 “Literature, along with (arguably) all forms of art, is a distinctly human legacy.  It is by definition an exploration of our own humanity, one of our most important tools of communication, and a force that both creates and reflects our culture.”     –  Jamie Leigh, author

I love the reminder that literature serves as an authentic basis for learning about our geographic, religious, political and environmental past.  An ardent reader lives an enriched life.

(Sophia and Oliver a few years back, looking up vocabulary words in hard-cover dictionaries; Soon, if not already, an extinct act of erudites!)

With heart-sleeves rolled way up, here is what I think about the world and the wonderful humans within…

Below are the books I have enjoyed so far in 2018.  *Full lists are in the menu bar above, under “Reading Lists”.  Happy reading~!

To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway on Writing edited by Larry W. Phillips

Red Notice by Bill Browder

Cortadito by Enrique Fernández

The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide

Poems from the Book of Hours by Rainer Maria Rilke

FINDING by Kim Fuller

Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown

Painting as a Pastime by Winston S. Churchill

Old Yeller by Fred Gipson

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

Honey, I Love (poetry) by Eloise Greenfield

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

A Young People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Helium (poetry) by Rudy Francisco

The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown

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References:  *“How Reading Makes us More Human” by Karen Swallow Prior.  |  Ref. Raymond Mar, a psychologist at York University. Keith Oatley, a professor emeritus of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto. | Anne Lamott, author.  |  Jamie Leigh, http://www.punchnels.com/2016/02/25/10-reasons-you-should-be-reading-the-classics. |  C.S. Lewis quote from: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/importance-of-literature.html

GLAM  xxx

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(revised and re-posted) *November, 2016.