Mary Jo Tate I just read a great article on the importance of reading on the “Desiring God” website: http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/731_on_reading/ It includes John Calvin’s thoughts about why Christians should read non-Christian authors as well as Christian authors. Take a few minutes to read this excellent article, and leave a comment to let me know what you think! Happy … Read more
Last time I posted the reading list for my upcoming high school literature co-op class. All of these books are recommended in George Grant’s Gileskirk: Antiquity curriculum and/or Veritas Press’s Omnibus I, as well as almost every list of great books. Most of them contain some objectionable material. All great literature involves conflict. (No conflict, … Read more
Last year my family joined a local classical Christian homeschooling co-op that meets once a week for tutorials. I taught the literature class for 9th-12th graders, and it was a wonderful experience. I hope to post more about last year’s class soon. The co-op uses George Grant’s Gileskirk Humanities curriculum for grades 9-12, so the literature class … Read more
I read 46 books in 2006 (not counting several that I started but didn’t finish). As always, this is an eclectic list (Hey, I’m the Eclectic Bibliophile, right?), including writing, editing, business, health, education, and classic and contemporary fiction. Persuasion by Dave Lakhani The Writing Life by Annie Dillard The Accidental Millionaire by Stephanie Frank What the … Read more
As of today, we’re the proud owners of Jodie, a beautiful Golden Retriever. My boys have been wanting a dog for a long time . . . but we have 6 cats (Bullseye, Sir Francis Drake, Bilbo, Frodo, Dixie, and Snowball) . . . so I’ve been putting it off. However, some friends are moving tomorrow … Read more
I know I have a serious book addiction. My friends and family know I have a serious book addiction. So I don’t know why it should surprise anyone when I behave like a bibliophile out of control. (Is that redundant?) Just last week I had a huge book sale. I cleared out forty (count them—40!) boxes of books … Read more
The shelves are full, the boxes stacked. My office space is out of whack. Boxes here, boxes there— Boxes of books are EVERYWHERE!! I cannot walk. I cannot file. Everywhere’s another pile. There’s no room for “just one more.” I cannot even see the floor. I do not like this messy room. It fills me … Read more
My boys haven’t done much formal study of spelling, and I recently told them we need to start studying spelling. My 11yo seemed very puzzled as he asked why. “You need to learn to spell,” I replied, not quite sure what wasn’t clear. Seemed pretty straightforward to me. “Why don’t we just read books and see … Read more
I’ve just finished reading Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. What a fascinating book! The book’s central idea is that “if morality represents how people would like the world to work, then economics shows how it actually does work.” Here are the fundamental ideas which the authors list as part of … Read more
Nine years elapsed between the publication of The Great Gatsby and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fourth novel, Tender Is the Night, which went through 3 plots and 17 separate drafts before publication. When Fitzgerald was nearly finished writing Tender Is the Night, he wrote to Maxwell Perkins, his editor at Charles Scribner’s Sons, that he would … Read more