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Some Thoughts on Dickens and Popular Literature
Right now I am reading Bleak House. I haven’t read any Dickens in longer than I can remember. I read most, if not all, of his novels when I was very young and then burned out on him. A few of his novels have really stuck in my memory but Bleak House is not one of them. All I really remember is that there is a case of spontaneous combustion in the book at some point which I found disturbing as a child. I am about a third of the way through the book right now and I am finding it fascinating. Fascinating, not necessarily because of the story itself…
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Little Adventures and Interesting Things
It was 65 degrees. At the end of December. On the east coast of the United States. That is just crazy. But it does mean that we were able to go for a walk and we didn’t even need jackets. Actually, the kids and I went for a walk, my husband went for a motorcycle ride since his ankles are still not fully recovered after spraining them a few weeks ago. But who would think he would be getting his motorcycle out of the garage at the end of December? He was a very happy man. I drove my kids slightly crazy by continually stopping to take pictures, though my…
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Does Blogging Change The Way You Read?
I started thinking about this the other night as I was trying to write a review of London Belongs To Me. I was struggling a bit and I wasn’t sure why. After all, it was a book I had enjoyed. I should be able to express that in a brief review. But still, I struggled. All I could think to write was a bit vague as if I was saying “I liked it, you might like it, read it.” Not really an earth-shaking review. Then I realized, over the last few months, I have developed two different ways of reading. I read to blog and I read to read. That is…
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London Belongs To Me by Norman Collins
If only this was true. If only London did belong to me. I am involved in an ongoing love affair with London and the title of this book is what first drew me in but once I read the description I was sure it was my kind of book. This is the account of 10 Dulcimer Street and the people who live there. Mrs. Vizzard is the landlady and the picture of rectitude until she falls in love with Mr. Squales. He is a bogus medium determined to find a comfortable home to land in, preferably with a wife to support him. Mr. and Mrs. Josser have lived at number…
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Words That Sing
When I was in high school I had an English teacher who every day would put a poem up on the board. She never discussed it or even mentioned it, but every day when we walked into class there would be something new. I wasn’t much of a poetry reader but I was a reader, an obsessive reader, and if she put a piece of writing on the board I was going to read it. Most of it didn’t make much of an impression. I read it, thought it sounded nice, and moved on. But one day she put an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem up and it was different.…
