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johnrakestraw

@[email protected]

Retired teacher of #philosophy and philosophical theology who once worked with faculty and graduate students to think deeply about #teaching. Longtime (and just knowledgeable enough to avoid the precipice) user of emacs and cli to pull together and access all sorts of ideas and data. Looking for more (and more and more) things to read, and struggling to find room for a committed introvert in online social space.

| #photography | #emacs | #bicycling | #FOSS | #linux | #politics |

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johnrakestraw, to bookstodon
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I have so many more unread books on our shelves than I'll ever read. Each of those books is somewhere on my TBR
list. I'm thinking that I might complement my #TBR list with a #NTBR list. There are so many (and more and more)
books, and I have so little (and less and less) time in front of me when I might read them. Obviously, winnowing
the collection would help to declutter our small space, but might it also declutter my mind?
https://johnrakestraw.com/post/from-the-tbr-pile-to-the-ntbr-pile/. @bookstodon #reading #books

johnrakestraw,
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@StefanieH @bookstodon Thanks, Stefanie. Eco's observation is not only insightful, but also very helpful, except for the physical space problem. I think also of something that Susan Sontag said somewhere, referring to her library as an "archive of longings." I have to add physical space to Eco's list of constraints. Even so I think that many of the books that I might pass on to others will remain part of my 'antilibrary' even if they're not sitting on our shelves.

johnrakestraw, to bookstodon
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#SundaySentence(s) @bookstodon

"As soon as we die, we enter into fiction. Just ask two different family members to tell you about someone recently gone and you will see what I mean. Once we can no longer speak for ourselves, we are interpreted" (Hilary Mantel).

johnrakestraw, to bookstodon
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I don't remember where I stumbled on this book -- perhaps even here on Mastodon? -- but I have to say that Jeff Deutsch's 'In Praise of Good Bookstores' is a wonderful celebration not only of independent but also of , books, and conversations about books. And there's a bonus -- a nice mini-history of one of my favorite bookstores, the bookstore in Chicago. Well worth the read. @bookstodon

johnrakestraw, to bookstodon
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“The task of calling things by their true names, of telling the truth to the best of our abilities, of knowing how we got here, of listening particularly to those who have been silenced in the past, of seeing how the myriad stories fit together and break apart, of using any privilege we may have been handed to undo privilege or expand its scope is each of our tasks.”

Rebecca Solnit, “A Short History of Silence” (The Mother of All Questions, p. 66)

@bookstodon

ryanpendell, to bookstodon
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@bookstodon On Deck:

johnrakestraw,
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@ryanpendell fascinating. This one is on my list. Same four women. @bookstodon

johnrakestraw,
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@ryanpendell @bookstodon luckily I didn’t have that problem since I didn’t know about Lipscomb’s book until I saw your post. Perhaps we should compare notes later

theotherotherone, to bookstodon
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I've been reading When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro. Booker shortlist. I love books like this, that show me a world I know nothing about - it's about a English detective who returns to his childhood home of Shanghai in 1937 to solve his parents' disappearance.

@bookstodon

johnrakestraw,
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@theotherotherone @bookstodon That was my introduction to Ishiguro. I really liked it, and not only because it brought me to several of his other books.

johnrakestraw, to bookstodon
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@bookstodon

Solnit: We are our stories ... that can be both prison and the crowbar to break open the door of that prison; we make stories to save ourselves or to trap ourselves or others, stories that lift us up or smash us against the stone wall of our own limits and fears. is always in part a storytelling process: breaking stories, breaking silences, making new stories. A free person tells her own story. A valued person lives in a society in which her has a place.

johnrakestraw, to bookstodon
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SimoneWeil, in 1934: “everything that seems normally to constitute a reason for living dwindles away, when one must … call everything in question…. The triumph of authoritarian and nationalist movements should blast almost everywhere the hopes that well-meaning people had placed in democracy… We are living through a period bereft of a future. Waiting for that which is to come is no longer a matter of hope, but of anguish.” Hope lives in 2023, somehow.
@bookstodon #SundaySentence cluster

johnrakestraw, to bookstodon
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Claire Messud: "Each of us is made up of our lived experiences, of course; but also, both consciously and unconsciously, of all the stories that we have heard, read, or watched. Without realizing it, we come to understand what a story is and how it means by the accretion of narratives in our heads" ('Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I write,' p. 65).

#SundaySentence cluster #narrative @bookstodon #reading

johnrakestraw, to bookstodon
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The House by the Sea, one of ’s several journals; it’s a treat. She’s such a good writer, but the occasional gems from her life are also very interesting. An example: her passing reference to as a tenant in a house where she once lived, who loved “a small ashtray covered with butterflies.” Nothing else said — it’s just an idle recollection as she packs up mementos from a house she once shared with Judy Matlack. @bookstodon

adam, to bookstodon
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Sunday funday project: Add a simple reading page to my blog! 📚

I wanted something simple that would showcase what I've recently read and highlight 5 ⭐ reads (The Will of the Many by James Islington is my most recent).

I used the Hardcover GraphQL API, fetching the last 100 books I finished.

There are soooo many things I could do, but this was a good start.

https://adamfortuna.com/reading

Side note: If you have a book page on your blog I'd love to see it. 🤙

@bookstodon

johnrakestraw,
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@adam @bookstodon An impressive list, and good that you’re able to generate it out of your app. Mine isn’t quite as well organized, scattered over several posts in my blog. But I’ve tagged them with the tag #reading. Here’s a starting point — https://johnrakestraw.com/post/reading-plan-september-through-november-2023/ @bookstodon #books

johnrakestraw, to bookstodon
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Of course I know I’ll never read all the books already in my , but that doesn’t blunt the serendipitous encounter with book(s) by an author I knew nothing about. Sure, it adds to the list, but still. Recent discoveries: John McPhee and May Sarton. Two very different writers, but both wonderful .

@bookstodon

johnrakestraw, to bookstodon
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Blog post — summer reading recap — https://johnrakestraw.com/post/summer-reading-recap/

@bookstodon

johnrakestraw, to bookstodon
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:

"… in seeking happiness above all, of course we never find it. It is a by-product and not the end of life surely. And all personal relationships depend so much on patience, on living through the deep places, the bored places, the dark places together."

-- in a 1945 letter to Juliette Huxley. Published in "Dear Juliette," p. 142.

@bookstodon cluster

CindySue, to bookstodon
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I have been trying to find something to read, but nothing is standing out to me. I guess I am in a slump of some sort. Any recommendations are welcome. I read just about anything, but very little fantasy. I enjoy nonfiction especially nature or social justice focused. I love middle grade books and some YA. So throw anything at me and maybe I will find something to get me out of this slump.

@bookstodon

johnrakestraw,
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@CindySue @bookstodon another one for the list if you’ve not read it is Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit

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johnrakestraw,
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@terrygrundy @bookstodon — so, another book to add to my list!

😉

More seriously, thanks for the hint — the TOC alone is helpful, even though I’m inclined to add many other sorts of books to the list

johnrakestraw,
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@Tinido @bookstodon Definitely yes — sticking to the plan is challenging. Something about this summer’s project was different for me, though. It will be interesting to see if i an maintain the momentum going forward

johnrakestraw,
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@MarianHellema @bookstodon My experience thus far has been much more “those are the books I have to look forward to” than “I have to read those books on my list.” We’ll see how it goes.

Können Sie mir bitte auf Deutsch statt Englisch schreiben? Ich kann auf Deutsch mehr lesen als schreiben. Ich kann nur ein bisschen Deutsch schreiben oder sprechen, aber ich möchte üben.

johnrakestraw,
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@quotesofnote @bookstodon I’ll see how this goes, but so far, at least, I’ve found it helpful to have a plan. Maybe I spent far too many years having a plan (albeit self-developed) imposed on me by the courses I was teaching.

johnrakestraw,
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@bibliolater @bookstodon Even though words like “always” and “never” make me a little nervous, I think I largely agree

johnrakestraw,
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@bibliolater @bookstodon i think usually is (almost) always better than always. 😉

johnrakestraw,
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@theotherotherone @bookstodon Agreed. I’m actually doing pretty much the same thing — I’ve read two books this summer that aren’t on the list, reading a third one now, and dabbled in a few others along the way. But the reading challenge for the summer provided a nice structure for me. We’ll see how it goes this fall.

johnrakestraw,
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@Hippasus500 @bookstodon What? You mean someone else is reading that stuff?

johnrakestraw,
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@ajlewis2 @bookstodon Now that’s an impressive reading plan! I’ve also taken advantage of the structure to make sure I include a variety of different genres and subject areas.

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johnrakestraw,
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@Abibliophobia @bookstodon The Overstory is definitely one of favorites of the last couple of years. I’ve not read any others on the list. (So many books yet to be read!)

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johnrakestraw,
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@geographile @bookstodon
Definitely — motivation is key. O’Mara argues that learning to walk is different from much other learning in that the motivation is largely hard wired — “feral children, or children that have been abused by being exposed to restricted environments, will still generally walk upright. This suggests that learning to walk is driven more by the unfolding of underlying motor programmes…than is the case with language” (58).

johnrakestraw,
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@geographile @bookstodon When I taught, one of my metaphorical goals as a professor was to inspire in students an itch that they could not not scratch. (Yes — double negative intended!)

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