Get Lost in Literature

  Myth - a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events. This is the definition of ' myth ' provided by Copilot when I Google-searched the definition of a myth. Typically, to my knowledge most of the best known myths are stories of gods and goddesses such as in Greek and Roman mythology (it even comes from the Greek word ' mȳthos '), and more controversially we could include the Bible in this category of story. Circe by Madeline Miller would be one example of a book that deals with mythology, detailing the life of the daughter of Helios. Seemingly powerless and ordinary, she eventually becomes the goddess of witchcraft and banished to an island where she hones her craft and takes the company of men. Another would be The Land of Lost Things by John Connolly , where the worried mother of a comatose daughter is whisked away to Elsewhere, a ...

Today's blog post is about listening, more specifically listening to audiobooks. Audiobooks are simply books that have been converted into an auditory narration. They're often preferred by people who don't have time to sit still and would rather utilize those headphones to listen to a good book, rather than use their eyes. I know there are people who exclusively listen to audiobooks, but I'm not a big audiobook listener. My attention span is a little too short to concentrate on the narration, my ears eventually reducing the voice to white noise. I've only successfully completed 4 audiobooks in my life:  World War Z 's unabridged audiobook, which was done entirely with voice actors and was a format I loved best. I've listened to Astrophysics for People in a Hurry , Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster , and I've listened to my favorite novel Call of the Wild .  Audiobooks are a bit controversial among diehar...

As in the whole kit-and-kaboodle.  That's right. Today we're going to talk about those collections. My collection, as you may have guessed it, is made up of books. It's organized by genre (mostly). I can always put my hands on a fantasy or a mystery or a horse book (horses, I've determined, are their own genre) because I always know exactly where it is. My only deviation from genre, is author collections. If I have multiple books by the same author, I group them together instead. I haven't counted my books. I don't know how many I have. Not as much as some, but definitely more than others. I don't share my books often. They usually come home dog-eared or with teeth marks from an inquiring kitten or smelling of cigarette smoke and occasionally they don't come home at all. I'm a collector you see, unless I truly didn't like a book and think someone else will enjoy it more, I don't just hand them out. I might want to read them again and I certai...

"What are you doing?" "Just reading." I suppose this post is sort of a tie-in with B and F and my upcoming K entry. Books are wonderful, and we all have Favorites, and K would be telling so let's hold off on that one. I'm just reading... Done on the weekends with my morning coffee while I sit in my rocking chair, or done outside in the shade in an adirondak, or done sprawled out on a towel at the beach. And let's not forget those blog posts when I'm sitting in front of a computer. I'm just reading. This whole blog is basically about my reading habits, and while I read some genres more than others, I read a little from almost every one. I'm a thrill seeker; excluding my aversion to carnival rides, skydiving, reckless driving, or anything else that could get me injured or killed... Okay, maybe 'thrill seeker' is the wrong term but I'm constantly looking for the next book to thrill me, enchant me, fill me with passion, sweep me off m...

  “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” ― Oscar Wilde Today's topic is inclusivity in literature. With the Trump Administration cancelling the DEI policies that sought to make it easier for minorities in the USA to be included, it's more important than ever to raise awareness for the fact that everyone needs a story that they can relate to and not just stories aimed at your stereotypical Mr. and Mrs. Mary Sue who are probably white. There's been a lot of talk about lack of representation of minority groups in media (in the US; I can't speak as to other countries' societal problems) over the recent years, including tv, movies, and yes, even books. People aren't always white, heterosexual, or without handicap. So if you supported Trump's so-called 'anti-woke' policies, which I believe is just an excuse to legally exclude people based on bigotry, feel free to leave at any time rather than be offended by my book recs. I'm going to start with...

“He moved like a dancer, which is not surprising; a horse is a beautiful animal, but it is perhaps most remarkable because it moves as if it always hears music.” ― Mark Helprin, Winter's Tale The above painting was discovered in the Lascaux cave in France. It portrays two bulls, a handful of tiny red deer at the bottom, and in the center, a horse. This painting is estimated to be about 17,000 years old. Which confirms what I already suspected: We've been obsessed with horses for a very long time. (I certainly have been.) And maybe they haven't been appearing in books for as long as we've been painting them, but they've been appearing in books for quite a while. They're portrayal in literature is unsurprisingly memorable. Some books were written to convey major themes, like Black Beauty by Anna Sewell meant to remind us of animal welfare, or War Horse by Michael Morpurgo which has long been hailed as anti-war propaganda important enough to have been made into b...