The Joy of Re Reading

I save my rereading for books I'm certain will offer up new pleasures. Rereading a favorite novel first read 5, 10, or 20 years ago, is a measure of our travel, how far we've cr; it's a way of visiting an earlier self.

Lewis Buzbee in The Yellow-lighted Bookshop, p188.

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Amazon Buyers Beware of this Scam

It hurts!! I have been scammed and lost £346 through a scammer operating through the Amazon.co.uk site.

If you see this guy selling anything don't buy it!!

The moment money transer is mentioned, leave well alone.

The email addresses that I have corresponded though are:

Alexander Groom (oscar-dehn@hotmail.com)
orchard.order@googlemail.com

Hopefully other people will google their email addresses and come up with this.

Why would any trustworty retailer have hotmail & gmail addresses? They are coming across as legit UK based companies with corresponding company websites.

Again - leave well well alone - pure scammers.

What really annoys me is that Amazon was warned about this scammer in early December and still he appears. I got scammed but they should have closed this guy out in before now.

So if it can happen to an old hand like me it can happen to anyone.

Thanks


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Books - A Cure for Gloominess

When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.

Michel de Montaigne

Thats the best cure for gloominess and depression that I have seen lately. And it comes to us over 400 years. Books help us to escape from the dreariness of everyday life.

D
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Education - an old view

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance

Will Durrant

That is definitely true, take it from one is ignorant.


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Great Literature Resources on iTunes

If you are keen on literature and life long learning you may want to check out iTunes University on iTunes. It's a fantastic resource.

I have just downloaded a couple of courses on English and American literature.

Keep living and learning

DK

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The Nine Most Terrifying Words in the English Language

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, "I'm from the Government and I'm here to help"

Ronald Reagan

Banking Observation

A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it.

Bob Hope

Or a bank is a place that will ask for a bailout from the government and then refuse you a loan. Typical double standards. Still the poor dears do deserve their bonuses for making such catastrophic losses - I think the correct term is market failure. DK

Test

Natural Ability

Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability

Cicero (106 BC-43 BC)

Education helps you to think in the same way as your professors whereas natural ability helps you to think for yourself. DK

Academic Quote

Academia seems to have lost its capacity for inspiring the kind of indiscriminate curiosity so fundamental to developing a well-rounded intellectual and creative awareness about the world.

Maria Popova http://www.good.is/post/new-school-how-the-web-liberalized-liberal-arts-education/

Reading Quote 15 Nov 2009

When I only begin to read, I forget I'm on this world. It lifts me on wings with high thoughts

Anzia Yezierska

The transformative power of reading is found in this quote. In a sense reading is an out of body experience. Peace and Joy DK

Reading Quote 14 Nov 2009

Tis the good reader that makes the good book

Ralph Waldo Emerson (103-1882)

The interaction between the reader and the book is a mystical and magic thing. In a sense none of us ever reads the same book. The mediating force of our personal experiences interacts between the pages of the book and our brain. Even when you read the same book again it is not the same book, as time has passed and your personal experiences have changed. Peace and Light DK

Beware the Man of One Book

Beware the Man of One Book

Thomas Aquinas A wise man, that Thomas Aquinas. Whether the book is the Bible, the Koran or the Communist manifesto there is a danger of having a closed mind when wedded to one book only. I am a man of many books, some would say too many books. But I love books, the more the merrier. Have a good read DK

The Alchemist

I have just started reading this much recommended book by Paulo Coelho. It was given to me by a friend but I was also interested in the comments made on Coelho by Ken Robinson in his book about Epiphanies. Coelho's parents did not want him to become a writer and they had him admitted to a mental hospital where he underwent 3 courses of ECT. Now thats what I call suffering for your art. Luckily the experience did not put him off and he went on to become a major writer. Well must go and start reading. Ciao Grant

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A Flight of Fancy

When I only begin to read, I forget I'm on this world. It lifts me on wings with high thoughts.

Anzia Yezierska Reading can be pure escapism, an escape from the mundane. DK

A Time to Read

Anytime is a good time to lie down with a good book. My favourite reading times are on rainy days. Curled in front of the fire with a book - luxury. Just before bed is another time that I enjoy reading - a great way to get ready for a nights rest. Stll I'm up for a quick read anytime, have book will read!! DK

Diary Writing...

"It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves one having to bother anyone else with them" Isabel Colgate The same could be said of many blogs including this one!! Dr Kelp Recommends

Directed Reading - Seneca

"Desultory reading is delightful, but to be most beneficial, our reading must be directed." Seneca (5BC - 65AD) I guess like most people that I enjoy both desultory and directed reading. Reading mind candy like thrillers and spy stories is fun but not that productive in the long run. Directed reading helps to make you think and build up a picture of a subject over time. Directed reading is often more difficult because you have to rein your wild mind in. I'm reading through some Essays by Emerson currently, and these essays need close reading to get the best out of them. But after some hard reading I always relax myself by reading something lighter. Go well DK

Advice for Writers

"If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write." Stephen King There you go, a bit of advice from a very famous writer. Keep well DK

Spansh Proverb about Books

"Books are hindrances to persisting stupidity" Spanish Proverb And that is why many regimes censor of burn books. Reading books helps to set your mind free. The public library is actually a freedom centre where people can liberate themselves from stupidity. Peace

Book Quote: 25 May 2009

"Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege of the learned. A widely-read man never quotes accurately, for the rather obvious reason that he has read too widely". Hesketh Pearson I really liked this quote because I often find myself paraphrasing or rephrasing the quotes of others. I always thought that it was a side effect of being a careless reader, but not so according to Pearson. Have a great day DK

Don't Join the Book Burners!

"Don't join the book burners. Don't think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book..." Dwight D. Eisenhower Reading books can be dangerous. It can open your mind to new ideas, or xpose the error of old ones. Because it is so dangerous, many people try to ban, burn and censor books. A well read populace is a challenge to any political demagogue. be an anarchist and read a book... DK

Reading Quote for April 2 2009

"When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me". W. Somerset Maugham It is one of the delights of reading that we get such flashes of light and meaning from what we read... DK

Reading Quote of the day

Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors. Joseph Addison Surely this is good advice, and Addison himself provided some excellent material for the reader. The Taler and The Spectator magazines are still worth reading after hundreds of years.

Reading Advice

"Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year". Horace Mann Absolutely good advice, but I would recommend 15 hours a day, if you can spare it. A day without reading is like a day without love. I get all shaky if I can't find anything to read - I think I must be addicted. Keep well DK

They Write and I Read

Thank God for authors and writers. They write and my job is to read and enjoy. On the way back from a fantastic meal in an English Pub (The Feathers, Hedley on the Hill) I was discussing favourite authors with a friend of mine. Some of our faves were: Dickens, Koontz, Hardy, Keneally, Carey, Gee and Courtney. Books transport you to another time, another place, sometimes to a different sex, race or religion. Reading + Good eating and drinking coupled with travel are the things that give me the most pleasure in life (family and friends notwithstanding). Keep Well DK

A Note from the Bard

My library was Dukedom large enough. Willian Shakespeare I agree with WS on this one. I rule by library as a benign dictator. I am a well contented man within the walls of my library.

Reading Quote Four

A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.

Charles Baudelaire

Writing Quote One

There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are

W. Somerset Maugham

So there you go, make up your own rules and stop procrastinating...

Half the month has gone

I can't believe that I have not posted for 2 weeks. Must be post Xmas langour or laziness. I'm reading two interesting biographies at the moment, one on Josef Stalin and the other on Mao Tse Tung. Both dictators and murderers exceeding Hitler. The banality of evil comes out in both books as does the overarching theory of Communism and the party line. Makes for sobering reading in a new century. DK

Happy New Reading Year

We are now in 2009. A time to read more books. Last year was a bit of a downer on my reading for a number of reasons. I only read 72 books, well below average for me. Still it is now a new year with new opportunities. I'm sure that 2009 will bring me further enlightenment from my pursuit of reading. Happy New Year.