This postYesterday was unique. Because everything was closed, I spent practically the whole day reading. Mmm. (FHE and an hour of painting with watercolors were the only non-reading I did.) After reading the first page of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in Spanish, I opened up The Silmarillion and read the story of Beren and Lúthien. The magic of the tale riveted me and I ended up reading C.S. Lewis’s essay “On Stories” and “Three Ways to Write for Children” (or whatever it is). I’m going to re-read Tolkien’s “On Fairy-Stories” soon too, and I’ve got a blog post in the making on the topic. Then I spent six or seven hours reading textbooks (Renaissance art, which was pretty cool, and Hermann Wouk’s This Is My God, about Judaism). Read a few chapters of Denise Shekerjian’s Uncommon Genius, which is a really cool book about creativity. Then I read a chapter of War and Peace and a chapter or so of Jane Eyre, then wrapped up the day with the Brothers Grimm version of “The Goose-Girl,” from Harold Bloom’s Stories and Poems for Highly Intelligent Children of All Ages. I’ve also been reading Through the Looking-Glass before classes start each day.
Reading makes me feel wonderfully alive. C.S. Lewis has a great quote about that in one of his essays, and I’ll post about that in connection with the fairy stories later on. But now, alas, I have to run.
