Book Meme
I saw this on ForeverFan’s lovely blog The Silent Wanderings a loooong time ago, and since it’s a cold, rainy January day and I’m sipping on a cup of steaming coffee, I felt like talking about books. 
1. Favorite childhood book?
Oh my, I’m not sure I can choose! Let’s see…the Chronicles of Narnia, the Anne books, and especially Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.
And if I could pick a favorite childhood book that I didn’t read in childhood, it would be The Wind in the Willows.
2. What are you reading right now?
War and Peace (epic and exhausting but so worth it because it’s not Anna Karenina) and Tolkien’s Tales From the Perilous Realm (lovely, sad, haunting little collection of stories). And I just finished Phantom of the Opera, which was interesting, but makes me feel like a literary traitor because…I prefer the musical. And The Witch of Blackbird Pond. My favorite read in awhile.
3. What books do you have on request at the library?
We moved just a short while ago, and so I’ve just now discovered the local library. So none as of yet.
4. What do you currently have checked out at the library?
Only a book of Tennyson’s poems, because of the reason above. ^
5. Do you have an e-reader?
No, and I don’t think I ever will. I love the smell and feel and look of a real book too much. I understand the convenience, but words on a screen just seem so…soulless.
6. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once?
Usually one at a time. I like to be fully immersed in the story, and I can’t do that if I have several occupying my mind at once.
7. Can you read on the bus?
Yes! Unless you’re sitting in the very back with all the bumps and jolts. “It is a truth–bump–universally acknowledged–jerk–that a single man in possession of a good fortune–faceplant–must be in want of a–crash–wife.”
8. Favorite place to read?
Out in nature somewhere on a summer’s day.
9. Do you ever dog-ear books?
Yes. Aaagh. It’s dreadful, but I can’t seem to keep track of bookmarks, so my poor books are dog-eared all over.
10. Do you ever write in the margins of your books?
Very rarely. I’d rather underline.
11. What makes you love a book?
Characters that don’t stay characters, but become brothers and sisters and best friends. Moments where I laugh, moments where I cry, and sometimes where I do both. An adventure that takes me somewhere I’ve never been, and writing that captures the beauty of it. And this is the sweetest part of loving books and the greatest reason why I do; those moments when the author gets it, when they take something that has no words and find words. And the moments when a story moves you so deeply that you cannot even cry. Somehow a tale becomes more than simple words. It touches your raw soul, and it takes your breath away, and it makes your heart pound, and it is utterly, heart-rendingly beautiful.
12. What will inspire you to recommend a book?
Essentially, everything I listed above.
13. Favorite genre?
Classic lit, historical fiction, and well-written fantasy.
14. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
Most of the time, I try not to, since taste in books is a very personal thing and the book I hate may very well be a favorite of someone else. That being said, there are some books that are writing or moral trash, and if a negative review saves someone else from having to slog through it, then I think it’s justified. And then there’s the occasional book that may not be trash, but is just begging to be snarked at.
15. Favorite Poet?
Lord Alfred Tennyson.
16. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time?
At least seven or eight. I feel like I’m wasting the library trip if I don’t stagger out with a heaping armful. 
17. How often have you returned books to the library unread?
Only once in a great while.
18. Favorite fictional character?
Fanny Price from Mansfield Park, Kate from The Perilous Gard, Faramir, Gandalf, Gen, and Molly Gibson from Wives and Daughters.
And I’m not counting any of the Narnia characters, because if I included them, I’d never be able to choose.
Javert from Les Mis.
21. The longest I’ve gone without reading.
A week, at the very most.
23. What distracts you easily when you’re reading?
Shouts of “Come set the table for dinner!”, being hungry, the next-door dogs performing The Barker of Seville, and long authorial intrusions.
24. Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
It’s a tie between North and South and the 1995 Persuasion.
25. Most disappointing film adaptation?
Probably the various versions of Mansfield Park.
26. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?
Usually it takes something highly objectionable or really bad writing to make me not finish a book. That being said, there are times when a book is just not working and it’s no use trying anymore…
27. Do you like to keep your books organized?
I would like to, but I don’t have much space for bookshelves. So my books migrate all over the house…
28. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?
Keep them! Giving away a book is like giving away a friend.
Ahh, books. I think I’m going to take my coffee and go curl up with one. 
See you after the last page,
Mal
Mary, Did You Know?
Mary, Did You Know?, sung by Mark Lowry.
Because no one can sing it like he can.
I know Christmas Eve is, for most of us, a crazy time full of last-minute details. But amidst all the hurry, listen to this with your eyes closed, and take a minute to remember what it is we celebrate: The moment the Great I AM became a baby a teenage girl could hold in her arms. O holy night, O night divine.
Merry Christmas! 
Happy Thanksgiving!!
I won’t have time to get on tomorrow, so I wanted to wish everyone a
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
May you all have a wonderful day full of turkey, stuffing, football, and especially the chance to spend time with your loved ones remembering how richly we are blessed. God is good!
A Pure Heart
I stayed home from church this morning, because of a bad headache and just general tiredness. So as I was doing my quiet time, I stumbled across this simple, profound quote. “A pure heart is one to which all that is not of God is strange and jarring.”
Jesus, sitting on a mountain before a large crowd, told them, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” I think it’s interesting, that among the Beatitudes, there are many beautiful promises for different people– the peacemakers called children of God, the meek inherit the earth, the merciful shown mercy. But only the pure in heart are promised that they will see God.
And so this quote challenged me. What would it be like to have a heart that the perfect God of righteousness and truth calls “pure”? Not just a heart full of good actions or kindly thoughts, but a heart that loves with His love, speaks with His truth, and stands with His strength–a heart that beats with His? A heart so of God that anything not of Him is utterly foreign and jarring?
Then and only then, will we behold Him.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Perhaps because they have no eyes for anyone else.
The star that all lives shall seek…
A few days ago, I came across this gorgeous poem by Charles Williams, core member of the Inklings, dear friend of C.S. Lewis, and accomplished fantasy author. It expresses beautifully both Lewis’s “Joy”, that sweet, restless ache for something more, and the “high beauty” woven through the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
~~~~~~~~~~
Over this house a star
shines in the heavens high
beauty remote and afar,
beauty that shall not die;
Beauty desired and dreamed,
followed in storm and sun,
beauty the gods have schemed
and mortals at last have won.
Beauty arose of old
and dreamed of a perfect thing,
where none shall be angry or cold
or armed with an evil sting;
Where the world shall be made anew,
for the gods shall breathe its air,
and Phoebus Apollo there-through
shall move on a golden stair.
The star that all lives shall seek,
that makers of books desire;
all that in anywise speak
look to this silver fire:
O’er the toil that is giv’n to do,
O’er the search and the grinding pain
seen by the holy few,
perfection glimmers again.
O dreamed in an eager youth,
O known between friend and friend
seen by the seekers of truth,
Lo, peace and the perfect end!
What Do I Know of Holy?
I love this song by Addison Road. I first heard it about a year ago, and it was one of those songs that immediately resonates with you. I think it touched me so powerfully because it is a perfect picture of what my relationship with Christ was for most of my life.
Growing up in the church, it was all too easy for Jesus to be only routine, a Sunday-school figure vaguely associated with VBS, memorization contests, and family devotions. For me, the majesty and saving grace of Christ became so familiar that it lost all meaning. And although I finally encountered the living God in my teens, it’s still a temptation to settle. To be content with knowing of Him, rather than knowing Him. And so this song speaks to me.
But it’s also such a beautiful reminder that no matter how long I live or how faithfully I pursue Him, I will never completely know or understand our great God in the sense of having reached the depths of who He is.
What a magnificent helplessness.
Up and Running Again!
Hello again! I just wanted to pop in and say how sorry and generally let-down I am that this poor blog has been abandoned since early February. We lost our wireless internet four months ago and are on a dial-up, which has really cut down on my ability to get online. Add to that a crazily busy spring of school, performances, renovating our house, trying to get into college, finding a job, and attempting to get half a million things done before graduation, and there just hasn’t been much internet time.
Anyway, I’ve missed being on here and I won’t let it slide for four months again! Looking forward to getting back into posting!
Dashing in and out,
Mal
