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Arthur
My mom gave me one of her childhood books when I was a kid. It’s one of my favorite books I had while growing up. And I love that it has her name written on the first page in her handwriting! I can remember marveling at the strangeness of some of it, and the beauty…
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The Birds by Aristophanes
I just finished reading The Birds (414 BC) by Aristophanes, translated by Alan Sommerstein. I have read many of the surviving Greek tragedies, but this comedy is the first play by Aristophanes I’ve read. It is a fantastical, absurd work. I was surprised at just how different it is from the dramas written by Aeschylus,…
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Robin Hood, Outlaw of Barnsdale and Sherwood Forest
With some help a couple of days ago, I got a few boxes of books out of storage. What fun going through them and getting them out on shelves! I came across two books that I am very pleased to have out of the darkness of storage and back into the daylight of a home…
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Bus Station Mystery (The Boxcar Children #18) by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Here is an old book jot from September 2021: I finished reading Bus Station Mystery (1974), the 18th book in the Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner. In this story, the four Alden siblings are once again involved in an unanticipated adventure. This time, a bus station, a river, and a paint factory are…
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Of Knights and Matches
Isn’t this a neat matchbook? I don’t remember where I came across it, but it was years ago. I held onto it because I found it pleasing and only recently rediscovered it when I was going through some stuff. It now has a place in a printers box hanging on the wall.
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Journey of the Magi
Here are a few lines from a wonderful poem by T. S. Eliot: At the end we preferred to travel all night,Sleeping in snatches,With the voices singing in our ears, sayingThat this was all folly. Read the full poem here: poets.org
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A Matter of Life by Jeffrey Brown
I just finished reading A Matter of Life (2013) by Jeffrey Brown. This is a graphic novel that describes itself on the back cover as “an autobiographical meditation on fatherhood and faith.” This is a wonderfully sweet, poignant book that feels honest and personal. Even though it’s about someone else’s life, it made me think…
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A Slew of Comics
I went to a comic book store yesterday that I’ve never been to before. It was a great shop, with quite a lot of back issues. They had a dollar bin, which is something I love and don’t find a lot anymore. If you bought 25 comics, the price dropped to 80¢ an issue. The…
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Autobiography of Joseph Scaliger
I just finished reading the Autobiography of Joseph Scaliger, translated by George W. Robinson and published in English in 1927. The subtitle gives a good idea of what makes up the book in addition to the opening autobiography: with Autobiographical Selections from his Letters, His Testament, and the Funeral Orations by Daniel Heinsius and Dominicus…