I am an Amazon affiliate and receive a small commission that does not cost you anything if you buy from this link. It helps pay for this blog! We all fight over our favorite books, but I find the more interesting question to be: what are your most frequent books? WHY DO WE RETURN TO BOOKS? With no conscious decision, there are some books I've read dozens and dozens of times, and in contrast, there are some books I love so much or that are so life-changing, I know repeated exposure will never match the feeling, so I've never gone near them again. WHAT distinguishes them? I don't know. This isn't a definitive list of the best books or anything like that, but just a peek into the weirdness and deeply personal experience of reading. I've covered my favorite libraries in fiction before, some other books I've read again and again. BOOKS I'VE READ DOZENS OF TIMES Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen Mostly because I needed something slightly engaging to fall asleep to and … [Read more...] about What Books Do You Read Again and Again?
Friday Review
Do Judge Authors by Their Time? Dune, Tolkien, and Outrage
“Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.” ― Frank Herbert, Dune I listened on audiobook to all of the Dune books written by Frank Herbert. (There are over 30 now completed by his son Brian after his death, but I had to draw a line in the sand somewhere!) WHAT DID I LEARN? WHAT DID I NOTICE? WAS IT WORTH IT? WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW Herbert started the first book, Dune, in 1959 (published in '65) and published the last book Chapterhouse: Dune, in 1985. Those were pretty important decades in our history, and the change from the unrest and idealism of the 60s to the stability and disillusionment of the 80s drenches the text. WHO WAS FRANK? During my English major, we always debated how much of the author you could really find in a work of fiction. And whether it was useful or appropriate to play a game of Author Gotcha as literary critique. So now I'm going to do … [Read more...] about Do Judge Authors by Their Time? Dune, Tolkien, and Outrage