Tried With Fire

Then end of 2019 is fast approaching, and people are posting their lists of favorite books and future books. I will post a list of my Top 10 for 2019, but there are still two more days to read in 2019, so I want to keep my options open. It's also hard to pare down the list, so I am putting it off for today. In the past, I had compiled a list of what I wanted to read in the New Year. I don't think I will do that for 2020. I have so many books waiting in the wings on a bookshelf near my bed, literally staring me in the face when I wake up and before I go to sleep. I think that visual will be a better reminder than a list that I post and then forget about. I also want to read because I care , not because it's the latest or most popular book as its only recommendation. I've slowly been moving toward reading for pleasure, reading that is not solely for the brain alone, and taking Alan Jacobs' advice: It seems to me that it is not so hard to absorb, and...

Ever since I read How to Think , which I loved, I wanted to read more of Alan Jacobs' writing. So I found a used copy of his book The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction . 1 It's been sitting in the TBR pile for a while, but I wanted a smaller book to bring on a recent trip, so I pulled The Pleasures of Reading from the stack and took it with me. It's a delightful little book on reading for pleasure and growth. You won't be guilted into reading a list of x number of books that you must read before you die, but Jacob writes about the ways in which we can stretch our minds and tastes as readers. And above all, take pleasure in reading. There are so many quotable quotes, but here are a few that stood out to me: "Above all, take time to discern, what the book - or story, or poem, or essay, or article - has to offer you. Slow down. Make a point of revisiting passages that seems especially rich, or especially confusing, or for that matter especially off...