Welcome to bookchat where you can talk about anything...books, plays, essays, and books on tape. You don’t have to be reading a book to come in, sit down, and chat with us.
Speaking of the Dark Ages, William Manchester says:
…it is undeniable that most of what is known about the period is unlovely. After the extant fragments have been fitted together, the portrait which emerges is a mélange of incessant warfare, corruption, lawlessness, obsession with strange myths, and an almost impenetrable mindlessness.
A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age
That writers had the courage to pour out their hearts in novels that are gripping and important is something I want to honor. I am a different person than I might have been because of them and I am glad for that. I have grown broader and deeper.
They have pushed back against the dark.
I am also thankful for the companionship of people who read books and share them. They stimulate me to read more and to ask more questions.
In An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin, the premise of his chapter 11 (pg. 183) is “How curiosity has become the key to freedom”. He explains that Curiosity + The Pursuit of Knowledge, (not just specialization) = Freedom.
On this eve of Thanksgiving, I would like to list a few of the authors that I feel planted torches of light. These are writers who opened my eyes to the world. I can only mention a few so please add your own in comments.
Not in order:
Homer
Shakespeare’s Plays and Sonnets
Miguel De Cervantes
Jane Austen
Alexandre Dumas
Charles Dickens
George Eliot
Herman Melville
Leo Tolstoy
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Franz Kafka
George Orwell
Mark Twain
Louisa May Alcott
William Faulkner
John Steinbeck
Carson McCullers
Ernest Hemingway
Joseph Heller
Alan Paton
Ralph Ellison
James Baldwin
John Hersey
J. R. R. Tolkien
Loren Eisely
Tennessee Williams
Isak Dinesen
Harper Lee
Maya Angelou
Louise Erdrich
Margaret Walker
Alice Walker
Margaret Atwood
Eudora Welty
Ursula Le Guin
Mildred Taylor
Isabel Allende
I hope you all have a good holiday!!
Diaries of the Week
Write On! How to Publish Now
by wonderful world
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Kos Katalogue 2014 Holiday Mothership - HOTLIST THIS!!
by Sara R
http://www.dailykos.com/...
SNLC, Vol. CDLIII / SN@TO 23: The Barber of Seville Edition
by chingchongchinaman
http://www.dailykos.com/...
NOTE: plf515 has book talk on Wednesday mornings early