Do you ever find that your reading habits happen in phases? That’s at least how I read much of the time. While I was at the monastery, I entered a phase of reading nonfiction and essays. In the past, I’ve mostly read fiction for fun, but I think a year of not being in school has begun to warm me to the idea of reading essays in my spare time.
After not reading (much) for a few months, I’ve started at it again with a few rereads from favorite authors. This week, I finished:
The Boggart — Susan Cooper
Cooper is one of my favorite fantasy authors, dating from my childhood experience of reading The Dark is Rising sequence. I reread this series earlier in the year, but couldn’t resist rereading The Boggart. This tale is of three children who inherit a mythical boggart, a prankster who is accidentally sent to Toronto with a load of furniture. The havoc he wreaks in the process of getting back to Scotland is hilarious, and the children’s adventures are both funny and touching. I will always recommend Cooper, even to those of us who are grown-up children.
The Tuesday Club Murders
As some of you may know, I am an Agatha Christie fanatic. In high school, I set a goal of reading all of her (many) books. I’m not sure I succeeded, but I certainly read quite a few! As a teen, I didn’t appreciate Ms. Marple as much as I liked Poirot, but the former has grown on me with age. The Tuesday Club Murders is a collection of short stories, where Ms. Marple solves a variety of mysteries, most through hearing secondhand stories, and declaring the solution as she counts the stitches of her knitting. Her snark and wisdom never grow old.
In addition to these books, I’ve also read a few fantastic articles this week that are worthy of note. This article, from The Huffington Post about millennials’ use of the public library gives me hope in our societal literacy. It also, happily, means that no one can say that millennials are “destroying libraries”. Another good, longer read is this article from Jacobin about the ways that twenty-first century elites still show their dominance in remarkably Victorian ways (oh hey, organic food!).
Happy Friday everyone! I hope your weekend is full of books.
Farmgirl Writes 