The recommended daily allowance

From "Wolfe's World" (NYT, October 31, 2004)

But let's get it out of the way, the elephant in the room -- what we want to know right now is: Does this guy own a T-shirt? Some nice khaki shorts? A pair of Tevas or, what the heck, some plain old flip-flops? It's 90 degrees, for God's sake, it's midsummer, and he's working, he's toiling, he's not going to show up in the white suit, is he?

Tom Wolfe is an M-mv favorite.

Wolfe's wit and wisdom:

The idea was to prove at every foot of the way up … that you were one of the elected and anointed ones who had the right stuff and could move higher and higher and even—ultimately, God willing, one day—that you might be able to join that special few at the very top, that elite who had the capacity to bring tears to men’s eyes, the very Brotherhood of the Right Stuff itself.

It is very comforting to believe that leaders who do terrible things are, in fact, mad. That way, all we have to do is make sure we don't put psychotics in high places and we've got the problem solved.

Not even the most powerful organs of the press, including Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times, can discover a new artist or certify his work and make it stick. They can only bring you the scores.

Tom Wolfe

This is Halloween.

 

This is Halloween, this is Halloween
Pumpkins scream in the dead of night

Happy anniversary!

Ayup. One year of reading, thinking, and learning at "Mental multivitamin." The passage below marked our three-month and six-month anniversaries, and the analogy still works:

It's been [one year] to the day since we began this virtual adventure. What [started] as one middle-aged autodidact's journey has become a sort of group endurance hike.

Some folks have been with us from the onset; others have taken different paths or simply returned home; still others walked a mile or two with us and decided they didn't like the scenery on our trails (or the oldish gal out front). And a small group of readers pop in once in a while to check on our progress.

No matter which sort of reader (hiker) you are, thank you for walking a piece with us.

Don't forget to set your clocks back tonight, fellow hikers. We'll see you tomorrow.

To accomplish something important, two things are necessary: a definite idea and not quite enough time.

"Supercharging the brain"

Cool article in The Economist:

Advances in genetics, molecular biology and brain-imaging technologies allowed researchers to scrutinise the brain's workings and gave them the potential to create drugs to enhance aspects of its performance. Though there are very few products on the market that reflect this increased understanding, that may soon change.

The question is, of course, "[A]re such drugs really feasible—and if they are, who should be allowed to take them?"

Read the article.

Naturally, this bit attracted my attention:

While there are those who scoff at the idea of using a brain-boosting drug, Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, does not think it would be particularly new, or inherently wrong, to do so. “It's human nature to find things to improve ourselves,” he says. Indeed, for thousands of years, people have chewed, brewed or smoked substances in the hopes of boosting their mental abilities as well as their stamina. Since coffee first became popular in the Arab world during the 16th century, the drink has become a widely and cheaply available cognitive enhancer. The average American coffee drinker sips more than three cups a day (and may also consume caffeine-laced soft drinks).

Hmmm. Coffee.

The recommended daily allowance

'Twas a long time ago, longer now than it seems in a place perhaps you've seen in your dreams. For the story you're about to be told began with the holiday worlds of auld. Now you've probably wondered where holidays come from. If you haven't I'd say it's time you begun.

From Roger Ebert's review of The Nightmare before Christmas:

One day Jack stumbles into the wrong entryway in Halloweentown, and finds himself smack dab in the middle of preparations for Christmas. Now this, he realizes, is more like it! Instead of ghosts and goblins and pumpkins, there are jolly little helpers assisting Santa in his annual duty of bringing peace on earth and goodwill to men.

Back in Halloweentown, Jack Skellington feels a gnawing desire to better himself. To move up to a more important holiday, one that people take more seriously and enjoy more than Halloween. And so he engineers a diabolical scheme in which Santa is kidnapped, and Jack himself plays the role of Jolly Old St. Nick, while his helpers manufacture presents. (Some of the presents, when finally distributed to little girls and boys, are so hilariously ill-advised that I will not spoil the fun by describing them here.) Tim Burton, the director of "Beetlejuice," "Edward Scissorhands" and the "Batman" movies, has been creating this world in his head for about 10 years, ever since his mind began to stray while he was employed as a traditional animator on an unremarkable Disney project.

The story is centered on his favorite kind of character, a misfit who wants to do well, but has been gifted by fate with a quirky personality that people don't know how to take. Jack Skellington is the soul brother of Batman, Edward and the demon in "Beetlejuice" - a man for whom normal human emotions are a conundrum.

The only Halloween flick that even begins to compete with The Nightmare before Christmas is the classic the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Happy Halloween, folks.

Ayup.

A new look. Why? Two reasons:

1. It's easier on my aging eyes, so it must be easier on yours, no?
2. The photos look better against white.

Further confessions of a country autodidact

Not to be dramatic, but, man, once upon a time ago, leaves slip-sliding through the air — back and forth, glide, back and forth, down — were personal harbingers of winter, my favorite season. Now the damned things are just personal... affronts.

I mean, I just raked that lawn, using, I might add, muscles I haven't used since I last raked a lawn, oh, twenty-three years ago! Yet, there I was again this evening.

Scratch.

Scratch.

Scr-aaaa-tch.

Scratch.

Scratch.

Scr-aaaa-tching my way toward the easement, where we country folk park our leaves until the giant leaf vacuum arrives again.

Add this to my "Things I love about city living" list: Someone else rakes the leaves. Strike that. Someone else blows the leaves.

To be fair, the young M-mvs fancy leaves and leaf-raking, which is a good thing:

[Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] aren't sure why, but they think that being physically active may boost the number of molecules that protect the brain and prevent the loss of brain tissue.

The rest of the story.

Which means, of course, that leaf-raking is good for me, too, right?

"Exercise protects brain cells affected by Parkinson's"

To be utterly truthful, I don't mind the leaves much, either. We curmudgeons just enjoy a good grumble once in a while. Besides I couldn't have taken the picture below in Chicago. Look carefully and you might find a Mental multivitamin (or two) in that pile of personal affronts.

Happy fall, folks.




This entry is hereby amended to note that while Mrs. M-mv has done most (all!) of the complaining, Master M-mv has done most of the raking. With nary a grumble.

A bitter campaign, a close election

No, not this one.

The election of 1800.

Presidential candidates Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr were deadlocked in the House of Representatives with no majority for either. For seven days, as they maneuvered and schemed, the fate of the young republic hung in the ballots.

Read "Cliffhanger: The Election of 1800" (Smithsonian, November 2004).

The recommended daily allowance

How I forgot this one on Tuesday I can't imagine.

From Henry Petroski's The Book on the Shelf:

One evening, while reading in my study, I looked up from my book and saw my bookshelves in a new and different light. Instead of being just places on which to store books, the shelves themselves intrigued me as artifacts in their own right, and I wondered how they came to be as they are. Question led to question, and I began to look for answers in — where else? — books. Books led me to libraries, where I naturally encountered more bookshelves. I have found that, as simple as the bookshelf might appear to be an object of construction and utility, the story of its development, which is intertwined with that of the book itself, is curious, mysterious, and fascinating.

"Brain Protein That Halts Progression Of Alzheimer’s"

Researchers have identified a protein in the brain that halts the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in human brain tissue. The protein, known as “transthyretin,” protects brain cells from gradual deterioration by blocking another toxic protein that contributes to the disease process.
...
[Dr. Jeff] Johnson [associate professor at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Pharmacy and lead author on the study] foresees a time when family members with a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer's disease could take a yet-undeveloped drug to increase transthyretin protein and prevent the disease from developing. Theoretically, the drug also could be given in the early stages of Alzheimer’s to stop progression of the disease, preserving a higher level of cognitive function in patients.

Read the complete release here.

Oscar Wilde

The wordsmith has made numerous appearances on M-mv, including our 3.14.2004, 9.6.2004, and 9.20.2004 RDAs and at least one "On the nightstand (under the pillow, in the knapsack, etc.)" (3.12.2004).

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Oscar Wilde's birth (October 16, 1854), BBC News collected examples of the writer's wit, including these:

"A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her."
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)

"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast."
An Ideal Husband (1893)

"To lose one parent...may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

Great stuff. For more about Wilde, check out this short piece.

And for more "great stuff," bookmark the BBC's Arts/Books page.

The recommended daily allowance

Thomas E. Benton is my alter-ego, I think. Or my clone. From "My Own Private Library" (The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 29, 2004):

I wonder whether I am afflicted with something more than a "gentle madness," as Nicholas A. Basbanes described it in his 1999 book on the history of book collecting [A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books]. You see, I spend more on books than I do on food.

...

Perhaps my book acquisitions reflect some psychological disorder, an unresolved trauma of my youth. Maybe my behavior is no different from adults who collect Matchbox cars, teddy bears, or baseball cards.

Boy, are we carrying some of the same luggage, or what, Assistant Professor Benton?

M-mv on madness (gentle or otherwise; I mean, personifying books and then relegating them to subjects in your kingdom? madness!):

From the rocking chair, I can survey the contents of the five bookcases pictured and six more large bookcases beyond the photo's frame. On any given shelf dwell enough friends and boon companions to accompany me (and the rest of the "M-mv team") through many a fine night or early morn, gray afternoon or quiet, summer evening. And the chair is sturdy enough, my lap broad enough to hold the youngest readers as they make the acquaintance of one or another of our kingdom's worthy subjects.

M-mv on unresolved trauma of youth (i.e., a book-poor childhood):

I am still trying to erase the memory of a book-poor childhood...

And, I regret to report, I was not sweet, my virtual friend. Not then. Not now. I was prickly, always questioning and challenging and talking. I was too thin, according to mother and pediatrician, and, as a "motor mouth," or, in kinder moments, a"bony pony," I did not, apparently, inspire in folks much in the way of cuddling. At the time that photo was taken, I had already spent more time in teachers' "thinking chairs" than I had in my assigned seats. I was, however, always, always comfortable in the company of books. To the school libraries and their bad-tempered keepers, to the town's tiny library and my future employer, I am forever indebted. They kept alive in me a love of reading, thinking, and learning. They helped grow an autodidact.

And M-mv on collections (including personal libraries) as psychological crutches:

Collections, as a general rule, are a sort of psychological crutch. We continue collecting those ridiculous pig figurines we've been collecting since we were fourteen, even though we've reached our forties and can offer our bewildered spouses no better explanation than, "You know I've always liked pigs." Collections are not entirely rational. Certainly, my own collection of books, although organized, catalogued, and as familiar to me as the face in the mirror, has a sort of associated mania, erudite though it may be (or pretend to be). I am about the business of acquiring new titles long before I have finished my current pile. And so the shelves bulge with books I will read as well as books I have read.

Heh, heh, heh.

So, what better recommendation to make today than books about... books.

A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books

A History of Reading (Alberto Manguel)

The Books in My Life (Henry Miller)

The Books in My Life (Colin Wilson)

Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books (Lynne Sharon Schwartz)

So Many Books, So Little Time (Sara Nelson)

(Note: The Schwartz and Nelson books were the subjects of our 3.31.2004 RDA.)

Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason (Nancy Pearl)

(Note: Pearl's book was also the subject of an RDA: 11.23.2003).

The Readers Quotation Book: A Literary Companion (Steven Gilbar)

Happy reading, fellow addicts. Happy reading.

Lunar eclipse tomorrow

Just a reminder, fellow skywatchers.

"That's one of the things that really bugs me about religion."

From Cathleen Fasani's interview with Bill Maher ("I'm Spreading the Anti-Gospel," Chicago Sun-Times, October 24, 2004):

"If you don't know the answer, just say, 'I don't know.' Don't make up stories and make people believe them, and then work backwards in everything in life from the dumb little story you made up, you know? We don't know. Be a good person just because it's the right thing to do. How 'bout that?"

Concluding:

"[Religion] wastes energy -- so much time and energy that could be spent on more important things, more-constructive things. It stops people from thinking. And it justifies insanity," he says, laughing. "Flying planes into buildings was a faith-based initiative. Other than that, I love it."

I know little about Bill Maher other than what I gleaned from two minutes here, eleven minutes there of his now-defunct program, "Politically Incorrect." But as someone who has written "about faith and religion and the chasm that exists between those two concepts" and maintained, "I have great faith and no religion" (see our "Why or why not?" entry), I have to admit that Maher's words are provocative.

S. provides insight:

Boy, [M-mv], when you decide to persevere and “damn the torpedoes,” you mean it.

As a self-described Evangelical Protestant Christian (and, true to stereotype, a Republican), I am probably an unlikely person to find Bill Maher funny. But I do. Part of the reason is I don’t take him terribly seriously. Like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and Howard Stern, he has learned that a large part of his success hinges on his ability to outrage people. I haven’t spent much time watching him, but the times that I have he usually amuses me.

I don’t have to point this out to you, but Christianity has wonderful legacy of scholarship. Martin Luther (loved the post about the discovery his privvy, by the way), Jonathan Edwards, John Calvin, and more recently, C.S. Lewis, to name a few. I would love for Bill Maher to try to convince me that C.S. Lewis wasn’t a thinker.

It is true that many present-day Christians have taken I Corinthians 1:27, “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise,” a bit too much to heart. But I think that is slowly changing. The history of the fundamentalist and evangelical movements (and, yes, there is a difference, in my opinion), makes for a fascinating study, by the way. In my next life, I may study them formally. But I may have to study feminism, theology, and, of course, literature as well. Good thing I have a family history of longevity, huh.

You stated that you “have deep faith but no religion.” I would like to posit that everyone has faith. It is what one has faith in that differs. You can have faith in your own power, or God’s, creation or evolution, Allah, Buddha, or even Osiris, but everyone has some sort of belief system that gets them through the day.

For the second time this fall, I am reminded of Steve Martin's irreverent monologue (is "Steve Martin's irreverent monologue" a marvelous example of redundancy, or what?) "What I Believe."

I believe in rainbows and puppy dogs and fairy tales.

And I believe in the family - Mom and Dad and Grandma... and Uncle Tom....

And I believe 8 of the 10 Commandments.

And I believe in going to church every Sunday, unless there's a game on.

Heh, heh, heh. I believe....

Seriously, though, Maher's remarks are outrageous, and on a second or third thought, one realizes that they're petulant, too. Of course, a healthy dose of petulance is is one of the hallmarks of polemics (to say nothing of talk show hosts), right?

Thanks for writing, S. Hey! And another faithful scholar to add to your list? One of M-mv's favorites: Albert Einstein.

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

Back to the bog

The Volo Bog, that is. It's the only "quaking" bog in Illinois to have an open water center. We first discovered it last month. (See our 9.20.2004 entry.) The changes in the ecosystem since that visit are remarkable.

Miscellany

You say, "Theatre"; I say, "Theater"
From our 4.4.2004 RDA:

The theater. Anyone seeing, oh, I don't know, horse-racing, Court TV, and the theater? (And that's theater with an "er," please; "re" is an affectation, and I'll bet O'Brien knew it, but Ph.D.s, well... let's just say they come with their own academic baggage.)

Staff reporter Kevin Nance demonstrates how two letters (E and R) shape our perception of the Chicago theater scene. From "Spelling test" (Chicago Sun-Times, October 22, 2004):

Pop quiz: Is the name of the art form involving actors performing live onstage spelled "theater" or "theatre"?

Think hard before you answer because you're choosing sides in a centuries-long argument that simmers -- and occasionally rages -- in American theater circles, and especially in Chicago, to this day.

If you're an RE person, prepare to be accused of elitism, arrogance, insecurity or -- worst of all -- of putting on airs by using what's seen as a British spelling.

...

But if you stand with the ER camp, prepare to be told that you're simply wrong.

Potty talk
German archaeologists made an, erm, earthy discovery, according to a BBC News report on Friday.

[T]hey may have found a lavatory where Martin Luther launched the Reformation of the Christian church in the 16th Century.

The stone room is in a newly-unearthed annex to Luther's house in Wittenberg.

Luther is quoted as saying he was "in cloaca", or in the sewer, when he was inspired to argue that salvation is granted because of faith, not deeds.

The scholar suffered from constipation and spent many hours in contemplation on the toilet seat.

Nearly as big as Christmas
According to a short piece in the Sun-Times, Halloween is now the kick-off to the "season of celebration." The National Retail Federation contributed to the article, which notes that Halloween candy ranks first in seasonal sales with $2 billion; Easter is second with $1.8 billion.

Countdown
Only six more days until Halloween, by the way. And only eight more days until we learn whether we'll be changing horses mid-apocalypse.

Reading, thinking, learning

Reading
"The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it."
— Elizabeth Drew

"When I see books that I have read on library shelves, it is like running into an old friend on the street. I often take the book down and browse through it, even though I have no intention of checking it out again.... Like friends, these books have gone into the making of whatever and whoever I am."
— Kevin Star

"It seems to me as natural and necessary to keep notes, however brief of one's reading, as logs of voyages or photographs of one's travels. For memory, in most of us, is a liar with galloping consumption."
— F.L. Lucas

Thinking
"What you think about when you don't have to think, shows what you really are"
— David O. Mckay

"You must continue to gain expertise, but avoid thinking like an expert."
— Denis Waitley

"Reading furnishes the mind only with material for knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours."
— John Locke

Learning
"Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all.
— Arthur C. Clark

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow; learn as if you were to live forever."
— M. K. Gandhi

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of becoming."
— Goethe

Making time redux

Some remarkable writers read "Mental multivitamin."

For example, D. of "Seeking Clarity" writes:

I just had to go back and read your amended entry on "Making time" after you'd mentioned in your comment on my blog ... that people were offended by this entry. Frankly, I can't believe that anyone would find anything to be offended by there. It's simple math: There are 24 hours in a day and so many choices as to how to fill them.

I do a lot of this useless floundering in my own life. I compare myself to the other mothers on the soccer field, to give one example, and let myself feel bad that I don't have the cute clothes or accessories or even figures that they do, but I have to remind myself that most of these same women are such unbearable bores to talk to that I set up my camp chair as far away as it's possible to do without being obviously rude. (And sometimes I don't succeed at that and they find me rude.) Oh, believe me, I wish I could look like they do and still be able to have the interesting conversations that I do with my friends.

My friends are women who, like me, wear the same pants every day because it's easy and we don't like to think too much about that stuff and whose cars are littered with debris because we never seem to get around to that kind of cleaning (because we really don't get any ego-boost from what we drive, anyway), and you get the idea.

But if I were to start marshalling more of my limited energy toward presenting a certain image to the world, I would have to take it from somewhere else. And sometimes I get inspired to do so, sure. Sometimes I get into a flurry of "image improving" activity and that can be fun, taking the time to put in earrings and make sure that my clothes match and things of this nature. Sometimes I'll get inspired to spruce up my home and take better care of it and during these periods I am reminded that it lifts my spirits to look around and see things shining and sparkling and uncluttered.

All of this is good.

But we have to realize that what we give to one area of our lives causes us to take from another. And that we shouldn't do this mindlessly and according to priorities that we haven't set ourselves. A post like yours reminds me that I can't do it all. And that it's my life, and I get to choose where I spend my energies. That's all. How in the heck that could offend anyone is beyond me. But keep on keeping on. I love your site.

I recently learned that I love it, too, D. Thank you for your excellent message.

And S., who signs herself "Mommy Blogger Extraordinaire," writes, in part:

[W]e do have something in common. I am also asked that same question, "How do you find so much time to read?"

I have two standard answers. My most common is, "What do you mean, 'find time to read'? I can understand not finding time to eat, but I don't understand not finding time to read." Since one look at my endured-three-pregnancies-and-now-approaching-middle-age body will indicate that I find plenty of time to eat, most people know immediately that I'm joking.

My second most common answer is, "Oh, it's easy. I don't ever do housework." This, unfortunately, is closer to the truth. My husband has found me on more than one occasion sitting on our bed in the middle of a pile of unfolded laundry, engrossed in a book that was calling from the nightstand.

You've already stated this, but I heartily agree that you find time to do what you want to do. Many people that profess having no time to read are able to tell you in great detail the standings of the latest gross-out reality television show. Some are busy training for marathons, cooking gourmet meals, and working on handmade hristmas gifts for their extended family. And I have spent upwards of 30 hours in the past ten days watching Major League baseball. I didn't think I had 30 spare hours in my
schedule, but it seems I did.

Anyway, I may not always agree with you, but I'm always interested in what you have to say.

Similarly, B., who is responsible for our penchant for starting our morning with the Set daily puzzle, writes, in part:

Thank you for reposting ... "From the 'Worth repeating' files" blog entry. I don't remember reading it and was glad to come across it today. I've been doing some thinking since the latest hullabaloo on [another forum]. I enjoyed your "Making time" entry. I didn't agree with all of it, of course, but it did help me to rethink and re-examine some things that have been bothering me.

And that's all we can hope for, right? That our commentary provokes thought. Thanks, S. And thanks, B., for this and, as always, for Set. (For the record, we've thrown our support over to your team. Go, Red Sox!)

"Be who you are...

and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."

Wisdom from Dr. Seuss.

And ain't that the truth?

Dear M-mvs

We received some lovely email this week. These two messages, in particular, delighted us. How wonderful to have folks "get" us.

Dear M-mvs,

I just wanted to send you a note to say, "Thank you," for the un-blog. I found you through the link on Lisa's page [the excellent "Rage Diaries," which we have recommended in several entries], and I'm so grateful. I'm especially happy that you've decided to continue with your project Why? I enjoy reading your site, and you inspire me.

I was born into a family of "compulsive readers" (my mother's phrase), and now I read (copyedit) for a living. I've spent most of my time, however, reading strictly as entertainment and escape. I was blessed with a good memory and ease at test-taking, so I never had to work too hard in school, and, in fact, have spent too much of my adult life just skating by rather than challenging myself to learn and do more.

I've just recently been feeling restless (again), and your site planted the seed that I can improve my mind, and go and learn and do at any moment. Without the M-mv site, I wouldn't be eagerly anticipating cracking open my beau's copy of Paradise Lost (which I last experienced as I dozed in an AP English class as the teacher read aloud to the class). Without M-mv, I wouldn't be making a note to ask the local librarians for recommendations of books on local flora, and I wouldn't have been as driven to make sure that my beau (I.) and I spent several hours driving through the mountains last weekend (field trip!).

And without y'all, I certainly wouldn't be contemplating learning French on my commute. I. and I plan to visit either the UK or France early next year (location depending on what TravelZoo offers us), and he said he didn't care to visit France (which he's done on his own and many times with his francophile mother) unless one of us spoke the language. When he said this, I'd just spent some time catching up on M-mv, and the next thing I knew I was having a small epiphany, and was saying, "So I'll learn French. I've been wanting to do that anyway. I can listen to CDs while I drive to work." Recently reading some of Sayers' Wimsey mysteries, I had, indeed, been wishing I could at least read French. With a 35-mile one-way commute in Southern California, I definitely have the time. And with M-mv's reminders that we can all keep learning and doing, I had the reminder of my own resourcefulness and spirit.

At any rate, this is probably more than I needed to say, but I just wanted to let you know what a positive, empowering effect your project has had on me. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
J.

P.S. I don't get why anyone would get upset by your "Making time" entry. The truth hurts, eh? I don't always prioritize perfectly, but I learned way back in the 10th grade that we all make time for what we want. If it's really a priority, then it will get done. Excellent entry.

Many thanks, J., for the kind words. Your message has had a "positive, empowering effect" on us.

And now this is from B.T.

I can't tell you the enormous sigh of relief I performed when I learned that you would be continuing your un-blog!

M-mv has been a source of great inspiration for my family. We appear to have a similar dynamic to that of your family, but until recently we had committed the ultimate sin — we had become lazy. Despite living in one of the most culture-rich cities in the world (London), increasingly we found ourselves baby-sat by the great big box in the corner, lobotomized by more and more trashy programmes. In desperate search of anything that would stimulate our brains beyond which-celebrity-would-be-voted-off-this-week, I found your site and I realised drastic action needed to be taken before we lost ourselves forever.

Living in a city such as London, it is hard to fathom that there are pursuits which can be inexpensive and yet fun. My children have finally learned that a great day out is not when they have bought back bagfuls of plastic toys but when they have seen something unique and learned about it. The effort my husband and I are putting in to widening their life education (not to mention ours!), is intensely rewarding — we have all become closer through our journey; it's incredible.

Anyway... I just want to thank you again.

Wow. Again, thank you. We're not in this for the kudos, but, man, unsolicited praise is a balm, isn't it?

Best wishes to J. and I. and B.T. and her family and to all who have joined us for this reading, thinking, and learning adventure. Amazing stuff, no?

A recommitment

We had planned another blogging respite, a holiday. And we have been having many wonderful adventures both out in the world and, of course, in our heads. (That is, after all, one of the benefits of reading, thinking, and learning: a rich interior life.)

Today, though, a gray day that we purposely left unscheduled ("Let's see what happens, eh?"), we ended up working on "Mental multivitamin," in one way or another, off and on, here and there, for most of the afternoon. That's right. Thank Mr. M-mv for the Bloglet subscription and changes to the site's masthead. Thank Master M-mv for the "What you're reading responses" finally getting posted. And thank the littlest M-mvs for their encouragement as we labored over, discussed, and, ultimately, recommitted to the un-blog.

Enough said.

Well, all right. A little more.

As I said, all of the "What you're reading" responses have now been posted. (See this entry.) Many thanks (again!) to all who responded. Re-reading your responses and several other messages we received over the last week reignited our interest in continuing a public synthesis of our personal reading, thinking, and learning pursuits.

In short, you are, in no small part, responsible for our recommitment to this project.

Who knew? The gal with near-legendary "personal space" issues actually appreciates that other folks appreciate her.

Now that's a confession.

Okay. Enough of the sappy personal stuff, eh?

We'll see you soon, readers, thinkers, and autodidacts.

For those who are new to "Mental multivitamin"

Welcome!
Among other things, we believe that fogged memory and slowed wit are not the inevitable consequences of , say, becoming a parent and/or growing old(er). Exercise your brain — read, play River Crossing, solve the New York Times crossword puzzle, learn Latin.

And take "Mental multivitamin," of course.

The recommended daily allowance
M-mv often includes "The recommended daily allowance," which features descriptions, quotes, and synopses from books (and occasionally films, cds, software, and artwork) that can have the same effect on gray matter as juicing can have on the rest of a getting-older-and-wiser body. If a title tantalizes you, dear reader, thinker, autodidact, click on the link.

On the nightstand
Once a month, we also cobble together "On the nightstand (under the pillow, in the knapsack, etc.)," a snapshot of the books that have recently become a part of the geography of our imaginations. You can find those entries at the links below. Our next installment of this feature is currently slated to run mid-November.

Previous "On the nightstand" entries:
10.12.2004
9.13.2004
8.24.2004
7.19.2004
6.12.2004
5.19.2004
4.22.2004
3.12.2004
2.15.2004
1.26.2004
12.31.2003

Write to us
We appreciate your comments, questions, and recommendations, so direct your (civilized) remarks and inquiries to the folks at "Mental multivitamin" by clicking here.

Shameless self-promotion
Finally, if a purchase that can be made at Amazon.com is in your future, please use one of the links here at "Mental multivitamin" (like this one!). No, we're not in this for the money, but it certainly is helpful.

Many thanks, readers, thinkers, autodidacts, and visitors.

"This day is call'd the feast of Crispian."

Mark your calendar now for Monday, October 25.

From Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare: A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying the Works of Shakespeare:

According to a legend which can be traced back no further than the eighth century, Crispin and Crispian were two brothers, Christian, living in Rome. They fled the persecution of Christians begun under the Roman Emperor Diocletian. They traveled to Soissons in what was then Gaul (later France), and there they remained in hiding, supporting themselves as shoemakers. In 286 they were found and beheaded, presumably on October 25, which became their day of commemoration. They were the patron saints of shoemakers and their day was particularly celebrated in France. And it was on October 25, 1415, that the Battle of Agincourt was to be fought.

From Act IV, Scene III of Shakespeare's Henry V:

King Henry:

No, my fair cousin:
If we are mark'd to die, we are enough
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
...
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart. His passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse.
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say, "Tomorrow is Saint Crispian."
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say, "These wounds I had on Crispian's day."
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words,
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Wondrous stuff! Watch the Branagh film today.

The Shakespeare Project of Chicago

The Shakespeare Project of Chicago celebrates its tenth anniversary season of free theatrical readings beginning Halloween weekend with Shakespeare's Macbeth directed by Mara Polster.

Saturday, October 30, 2004
at 10 a.m.
The Newberry Library
60 West Walton Street
Chicago, Illinois

and

2 p.m.
Wilmette Public Library
Corner of Park and Wilmette Avenues
Wilmette, Illinois

and

Sunday, October 31, 2004
at 2 p.m.
Duncan YMCA
Chernin Center for the Arts
1001 West Roosevelt Road
Chicago Illinois

If you look carefully, you may see an M-mv or two in one or another of the audiences. We are, after all, beloved groundlings.

Best wishes to Jeff Christian, artistic director, and all of the Project's wonderful actors. May your mission continue to be successful.

What you're reading

And this concludes our "What you're reading" adventure. You'll find the previous entries here and here.

As we mentioned, customarily, we'd provide a hyperlink to every book listed in an entry like this. But our days are getting shorter and shorter, and the idea of cross-checking the title and author of each book and grabbing the HTML code for the Amazon links... well, let's just say, "Yuck." Instead, we ran the entries pretty much as they came in (i.e., virtually unedited)and provided an Amazon search box at the bottom of the first two "What you're reading" entries.

Today, we'll just suggest that if you see a title that interests you, click on one of the Amazon links.

Many thanks to all who contributed. You folks are amazing.

___________________________________

A.L. writes, "Isaac Asimov's Foundation series is the set of three I am focusing on currently (for the 20th? 30th? well, who's counting? time). I am reading Abarat, as well, although I picked it up mainly for the incredible artwork. I love the use of clear colors in watercolor and this artist did an awesome job.

"My hubby is reading and studying Chinook A History and Dictionary by Edward Harper Thomas and American Folk Magick by Silver RavenWolf.

"Our daughter is wending her way through The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle and is looking forward to listening to the Odyssey on a booktape. The Doyle book was assigned but the Homer was not."

Ah, a child who chooses Homer. You must be doing something right.

Amazon

D., who keeps the "Seeking Clarity" blog (and who gave us a nod here), writes, "My "summer classic" (now stretching into fall) was D.H. Lawrence's Women in Love. Actually, I am both listening to it on an MP3 player and reading it the conventional way. This wasn't the plan, but I found that there was just so much that I wanted to think about and make note of that I have been listening to a chapter at a time, and then reading each chapter after listening to it and underlining passages and earmarking pages.

"Wonderful book. I had this image of Lawrence as a 'naughty' writer because of the banned-at-the-time "Lady Chatterley's Lover," but he's full of rich, complex ideas and observations about people.

"I'm a new reader of your site and I love it. I can't wait to attack the archives."

Thank you, D., and thank you for the nod at your site, too.

Amazon

E.T., daughter of M-mv fave R.T., sends this list with parenthetical remarks:

The Diary of Anne Frank (Excellent--you really feel as if you get to know her.)
The Legend of Luke by Brian Jacques (Pretty good--Interesting format.)
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (Good if you like pirate/adventure stories)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Funny--I don't love sci-fi, but this one is good.)
The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper (Good--fantasy, there are more in the series and they're all pretty good.)
Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens (OK--Characters are too stock. Dickens uses this a lot and I haven't liked this in most of his books except A Tale of Two Cities, which I really liked.)
A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle (Very good fantasy--but a little disturbing; mature subject matter, probably over age 13.)
All American Girl by Meg Cabot (OK--Kind of amusing, light reading.)
Callico Bush by Rachel Fields (OK--Interesting plot and characters.)
The Face on the Milk Carton, Carolyn Cooney (Good, series is also pretty good, a lot of emotional conflict which some people may or may not find hard to read.)
Animal Farm by Orson Welles (Didn't like on first read because the plot didn't appeal to me, but I am re-reading again for a book club for discussion.)
The Scarlett Pimpernel (Excellent--I love literature from the French Revolution. Written from an upper-class POV that I didn't always find sympathetic though.)

E.T., perhaps this is utterly inappropriate, but Master M-mv read your list and said, "Hey! She rocks!"

Amazon

C.T. writes, "I'm happy to find that you've chosen to take this poll again. The last list you posted, along with your regular features "On the nightstand (under the pillow, in the knapsack, etc.)" and "Recommended daily allowance" help me keep a running list of books to look for while I'm out. Here is a peek at my current nightstand decor:

Charming Billy (Alice McDermott)
Snow Falling on Cedars (David Guterson)
Brunelleschi's Dome (Ross King)
Benjamin Franklin (Walter Isaacson)"

We're happy to pad your reading list, C.T.

Amazon

J. writes, "Here's my current list of on the nightstand, in the knapsack books (or in my case, stacked up in the floor of my closet):

The Benevolence of Manners by Linda S. Lichter
Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson
Kitchen Science by Howard Hillman
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
The Plug-In Drug by Marie Winn
A Return to Modesty by Wendy Shalit
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

"I am fairly eclectic in my tastes, and I have found A Return to Modesty particularly fascinating. The way college-aged young adults view women who have held on to modesty left me both shocked and dismayed. The current views on sexual relationships and proper post break up etiquette is laughable; as well as shedding light on the reason the divorce rate is so high. Okay, I'm rambling, but if you haven't read this book, I recommend it highly."

J. returned later with this wonderful message:

"I agree and applaud your stance on the 'Oprah Phenomenon' going about. [We've covered Oprah here, here, and, most recently, here.] Her recent book recommendation, The Good Earth, is indeed a great read, but I read it the first time in the seventh grade. Isn't she insulting her audience's intelligence here? Or, perhaps the autodidacts who have read this book at the age of 12 would be intelligent enough to spend their time reading through the M-mv recommendations, and of course browsing the site for new ideas instead.

"Your excerpt [here and here, to name two entries] on people constantly using 'Wallah' in the place of 'Voila' brought a wry grin to my face, for I have a four-year-old who insists on telling me how to make dinner each night. 'First you boil the pasta, Mom. Then you make the sauce, put in on a plate, sprinkle some cheese, make a salad and WALLAH, dinner.' I guess we can make exceptions for adorable pre-schoolers, though."

Heh, heh, heh. Yes, we can make exceptions for the precocious children of our readers.

Amazon

S. sends this list with a few parenthetical remarks:

Currently reading: Patrick O'Brian's H.M.S. Surprise (I never thought this series would interest me, but I am head-over-heels for Stephen Maturin) and Machiavelli's The Prince

Just finished: John Ferling's Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution

Recently read:
Colm Toibin's The Master
Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest
Eudora Welty's The Optimist's Daughter
Barry Unsworth's Morality Play
Brian Hall's The Saskiad
Marianne Wiggins' Evidence of Things Unseen
Orhan Pamuk's Snow (Pamuk's a Nobel Prize just waiting to happen)
Ivan Kilma's No Saints or Angels
Hilary Mantel's A Change of Climate

Books I hope to read soon:
Homer's The Odyssey
Barry Unsworth's The Songs of the Kings
Sophocles' Antigone
Iris Murdoch's The Bell
David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas
Louis De Bernieres' Birds Without Wings
Joseph Ellis' American Sphinx
Kate Atkinson's Case Histories

Love Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Have you read it, S.?

Amazon

C., who made our virtual morning with her recent blog entry about M-mv, sends this list, noting, "On my nightstand: (These are really what's there)."

We believe you!

The Travels of Jamie McPheeters by Warren
The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
Barchester Towers by Trollope
Warmly Inscribed by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Dispensationalism by Keith Mathison
The Wide Window by Lemony Snickett
My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

Thanks for the response and the blog nod.

Amazon

A. wastes no time with her list:

Me: Reading 'Tis by Frank McCourt.
Alexander: Reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling.

Future read for me: When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Susan McCarthy.

Future read for Alexander: Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory or Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Thanks, A.

Amazon

K. writes, "How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill. Hubby and I read it as a bedtime read to each other a few years back, but I was pretty clueless as to what it all really meant. Now, having a bit more history under my belt thanks to homeschooling the little ones, I understand the story so much better. Very fun and interesting read for a girl whose maiden name was K. Kennedy.

"Nevada Gardeners Guide as a reference quick read to help me pick out new landscaping plants for my yard now that I live in the Desert. Roses are topping my list right now."

Cahill's "Hinges of History" series has grown. You may want to check out some of his other titles, K.

Amazon

S.G. writes, "These are the books I've read in the past month. Some of them were for my own pleasure and some of them were pre-reads before letting the kids read them.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman (based upon your recommendation)
Westmark - Lloyd Alexander
The Ruby in the Smoke - Philip Pullman
Raise the Red Lantern - Su Tong (Nope, I haven't seen the movie)
The Shakespeare Stealer, Shakespeare's Scribe, and Shakespeare's Spy - Gary Blackwood
Just One Look - Harlan Coben (gift from Mom)

Right now I'm reading Les Misérables - Victor Hugo (Norman MacAfee translation). Next it'll either be Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen or Cross Stitch - Diana Gabaldon. I'm sure I know which one you'd recommend, but it'll probably be based upon which one's due back at the library first.

Heh, heh, heh. So, which did you read first, S.?

S.G. submits this list, too:

11 yo dd: The Long Patrol, Pearls of Lutra, Marlfox - Brian Jacques, and some Trixie Belden books

8 yo dd: Meet the Austins, The Moon by Night, A Ring of Endless Light - Madeleine L'Engle and Trixie Belden books

8 yo ds: Rakkety Tam - Brian Jacques, Dragon Rider - Cornelia Funke, The Phoenix and the Carpet - Edith Nesbit, Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson

3 yo dd: I'm a Manatee, Micawber, Marsupial Sue, Carnival of the Animals - John Lithgow, The Blackberry Mouse - Matthew Grimsdale, The Very Sleepy Pig by John Malam, The Bunny of Bluebell Hill - Tim Preston, Poems for the Very Young - Michael Rosen, The Way I Feel - Janan Cain, and favorite repeats of Eric Carle and Dr. Seuss (especially Go, Dog, Go)

Family read-alouds: Little Britches - Ralph Moody, A Wee Book o Fairy Tales in Scots - Matthew Fitt and James Robertson

Amazon

K. recommends these:

"The Berry Bible - Jane Hibler
Comprehensive berry guide with great recipes and instructions for preserving berries. Out here in the 'wilds of Wisconsin' we spend many hours with the nephews/nieces picking currants, blackberries, raspberries, gooseberries and the like. Now I have many new things to do with them, including brandy/spirits making.

"Recently finished: Gulag - Anne Applebaum. Grim, heartbreaking, sobering... I'm at a loss for words with this one. I finished it several weeks ago, but it is still on my mind. Lost a lot of my ancestors in Stalin's prisons.

"A Life's Work - Rachel Cusk. Excellent, honest reflections on the first year of new motherhood. My situation exactly. Culture shock (but loving it as I used to love the exhaustion and exhileration after a mountain climb)!

"Twenty Days With Julian and Little Bunny by Papa, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Recently published notebook from his autobiographical writings. I can't get enough of him, and while this was lighthearted (and much too short) it allows a glimpse into his family life. Includes notes on visits by Herman Melville. Good stuff.

"In the bathroom: Trust Me - John Updike. Short stories on his usual topics: marriage, middle age angst, the northeastern U.S., and etc. I really ought to replace this one, but the stories can be read in ten minutes or less. The Atlantic Monthly and National Geographic are in there for baths when I have a bit more time to read.

"Currently rereading: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. This is one of my all time favorite books and reading it inspires me to work harder to achieve my personal and intellectual goals. It celebrates femininity/humanity and is a healthy counterbalance to the hyper-emotional cultural and political trends of today. For me, Dagny Taggart embodies brilliance, professionalism, energy, and grace under pressure.

"Just started: Lines of Fire: Women Writers of World War I, edited by M. Higonnet. So far, impressive.

"Keep up the good work. I love checking in with you every few days!"

Thank you.

Amazon

M., an original and card-carrying member of M-mv's best and perfect audience, writes, "Patrick O'Brian's The Mauritius Command Paul Krugman's The Great Unraveling, Lewis H. Lapham's Gag Rule: On the Suppression of Dissent and the Stifling of Democracy. I 'discovered' these left-leaning political blogs and have been reading them religiously: Atrios, DailyKos, Wonkette, Josh Marshall. Last Sunday, The New York Times Magazine cover story featured the following political blogs: Atrios, DailyKos, Wonkette, Josh Marshall. Once again: cliche -- c'est moi!"

You are no cliche, M. You think and read and learn. And you make us think. As always, thank you, my virtual pen-pal.

Amazon

B. writes, "On the coffee table are Neal Stephenson’s The Confusion and The System of the World. (Quicksilver is first in the series). Near the bathtub is Helene Hanff’s Letters from New York. On the nightstand are Lawrence Durrell’s Antrobus Complete and Anne Fadiman’s Confessions of a Common Reader. All are terrific, but I suspect that M-mv addicts might grow very fond of the Fadiman if they’re not already. Still delighted M-mv is out there."

Thanks, B. Reading these responses is reigniting our passion for M-mv.

Amazon

__________________________

And finally, the following submission from someone we "met" in another forum. Articulate, smart, funny, she's one who reads widely and deeply and is unafraid of thinking about and commenting on the books that slip through her hands. The entry is long but worth your time.

Note that we have not made the usual "edits" (e.g., italicizing titles enclosed in quotation marks, for example). E. writes, "Please, forgive the unedited nature of this... no disrespect is intended, but I want to participate & I know that if I set this aside... I'll edit it after finals - fall finals, if I'm lucky."

Nothing to forgive, E.

Disrespect? On the contrary, you've complimented us with your treasure of a response. Readers, accept the entry just as it is: a prose-poem to the reading life.

Thank you, E., for the terrific response and your kind remarks.

What are we reading

A & M (my littlest ones, 3 yr old twins) have been/are enjoying "Winnie the Pooh", "Little House in the Big Woods", "Little Pear", Lois Lenski's "The Little Train" (one of my favorites when I was 3!), "Where is that Cat?" by Carol Greene, "Green Eyes" (I forget the author!), "My book of Mitzvos", "Going to Sleep on the Farm" (Lewison), Time for bed (Dyer) and endless rounds of books by Shurley Hughes. We're looking forward to starting the Milly Molly Mandy books soon... It is such an enormous pleasure to revisit some of these books, but from a different perspective as each little person responds to a different aspect... and my memories of these books are now so multi-layered .. my own faint recollections of Milne from my early childhood, or rereading the Laura books as a 22 year old, the endless readings of "going to sleep on the Farm" when my eldest was 1 ....

When my eldest read "Prisoner of Zenda" for the first time last year, I caught glimpses of my 10 year old self - books somehow hold echoes of who I was when I read them before.... I've never been able to fathom quite *how* or *why*, but I can no longer dispute the reality of it.

S. (5) is reading Charlotte's Web to me & has the Oz books as her bedtime story (we're almost done "The Road to Oz"). On her own she is reading T. Burgess books, "Knight's Castle" (E. Eager), 'Nate the Great" & "Henry & Mudge" (and their many sequels!), and "The Phoenix and the Carpet" (E. Nesbit.)

G. (7) is listening to "Castle of Llyr" (L Alexander), and he is/has been rreading "The Children of Green Knowe", "Freddy the Detective", "Journey to the Mushroom Planet", his atlas, flag dictionary, "the book of Flight" & the A & P volumes of the encyclopedia (yes, seriously!), "Enchanted Castle" (E Nesbit), and the Redwall series.

D (9) is listening to "Missee Lee" ( Ransome) at bedtime and is/has been reading 'Spindle's End" (McKinley), "Hannibal (R. Green), "Exploits of Xenophon (adapted by Gregory Household(I think!)), "The Black Stallion" (& sequels!), "Singing Tree" (K Seredy), "Prince and the Pauper" (Twain) and "Fragile Flag (J Langton) and rereading M. Henry's horse books.

I (11) is listening to "Northanger Abbey" (and isn't sure *what* she'll choose for her bedtime story when we run out of Jane Austen...), reading the Iliad (for school lit. reading - but she rates it as pleasure reading, so I've included it!), a biography of Rambam (Rabbi Moses Maimonides), "Crown Duel" (Sherwood Smith) and her "Wren" books (we're eagerly awaiting the 4th - due sometime next year), historical fiction by Madeline Polland, Cynthia Harnett, and Sally Watson, and rereading "The Blue Sword" (McKinley) and several Diana Wynne Jones books...

Y(dh) recently finished "Code Complete: a practical handbook of software construction", "Design Patterns Explained: a new perspective on object-oriented design", "The Dolly Dialogues" (Anthony Hope - better known for "The Prisoner of Zenda"), and is/has been enjoying "The Count of Monte Cristo", "The Scarlet Letter", the Penguin book of Socialist Verse (I'm not sure if that is the exact title), and a reread of Dorothy Sayers (mysteries, not theology!), has joined me in reading through J. Tey (a very different style than Sayers!!) - and we both njoyed "Expensive Halo" - which is not a mystery at all... an odd blend of Elizabeth Goudge and some sections of Eliot's Middlemarch. And his Daf Yomi group is about to start at the beginning of the 7 year cycle of Talmud study (with Berachos).

He has also been my valiant assistant in prereading books for our kids. We've found some enjoyment in the following, but rejected them as inappropriate for our family: Tamora Pierce's books - she writes engaging, fairly inventive stories, with enjoyable characters but is *far* too explicitly intimate for *my* comfort (for myself, let alone my children), much of the same can be said for Mercedes Lackey - except her plotting is better, characterization is worse and she exponentially more explicit - both in matters of intimacy & in violence... ymmv. Another reject was "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" - a little sappy, with some definite stock scenarios and a bit of tear-jerking, but it had a spark of something... unfortunately it does more than *show* some of the challenges/"bad" choices/etc of many modern teens, it often romaticizes and even encourages some... anyway...

And last, but certainly not least, Philip Pullman, both "His Dark Materials" and the Sally Lockhart books. I was very disappointed by the Dark Materials Trilogy. Leaving aside entirely my passionate objection to the central decision Lyra made (especially given her age and the age levels of the intended audience) and taking the books entirely on their own terms, I felt they fell far short of their potential, that there was so much 'big picture' stuff going on that the story telling often got
lost. But I wouldn't have minded if there hadn't been some major potential there to miss! The Sally books, so far, are much more satisfying - they aren't intended to have any significant message... they are sort of spoofs of Victorian thrillers, but with far more characterization that the dark materials books have (imnsho).

Organic Chemistry by Solomons & Fryhle is about to dominate my life - with some help from some other textbooks, so I 've been squeezing in even more reading hours!

Brain candy: A variety of medieval mysteries including Candace Robb & Margaret Frazer, (+ the Tey, mentioned above - weird thing is, I never cared for mysteries, except Sayers, until I went back to school last year in the sciences....) rereading some Dorothy Dunnett (literate brain candy!), and screening YA books for my tweens.

Non fiction: "Seven Pillar of Wisdom" (TE Lawrence) & Desert Queen: The extraordinary life of Gertrude Bell (Janet Wallach) (the 1st is *far* better than the second, but both are fascinating. I didn't start them while thinking of current middle easterm politics, but, oh my, how applicable it is!) and, also closely related "Paris 1919: 6 months that changed the world" (Margaret Macmillan).

Intentionally connected to modern issues: "An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan" (not confidant of subtitle...) and Chomsky "Hegemony or Survivial" is on my 'to read pile' right now....

On a lighter note: "Malaria dreams: An African Adventure" (I don't have a memory, or a note handy w/ the author's name) - mostly lighthearted, occasionaly heart wrenching, and always confirming my suspicion that I would rather do my more adventerous traveling vicariously! (I just recently reread most of "Burmese looking glass: a human rights adventure and a jungle revolution by Edith Mirante - often amusing, but rarely lighthearted - another set of adventures I'd rather read about than come anywhere close to experiencing... reminded me I want to dig out my list of Burman books... not easy reading, but what an incredible country... I must mention
"Beyond the Last Village" (A. Rabinowitz) I haven't read it recently, but it is a stunning and delightful book!!)

And, as a necessary change of viewpoint, "Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point /" (D Lipsky). I am politically "left", morally "right", but always close to pacifist. This book gave me a little window into a very different world, and I was fascinated.... One of my greatest pleasures in books is being able to enter someone else's world, to see things through another's eyes... and, I hope, to emerge a slightly more empathic person. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but I can't seem to escape platitudes and cliches... so I'll just assume that you fellow book lovers at M-mv know full well what I'm so inarticulately trying to express!

Also: a bio of Catherine the Great (recommended by SWB.. but not as good as one I read 10 years ago & haven't been able to track down since... grrrr). A whole slew of bios by Alison Weir - interesting but not very satisfying - it is hard to find biographers I really like... Mattigly wrote a bio of Catherine or Aragorn that I remember loving, and Warren wrote a *marvelous* bio of King John (of Magna Charta fame) & a fascinating one of Henry II... and I have a handful of others I consider worth owning & rereading... that do more than give over gossip or facts or a combination... but instead leave one feeling one has really had a glimpse into another person's life... and not the super private parts (I, personally, like to stay out of other people's bedrooms!)....

Fiction:

I read through most of Chris Bohjalian - "Midwives" haunted me (and left me wanting to write a long, passionate letter to the author about the somewhat sterotypical presentation of homebirth & midwives!), Hangman was more horror than I had imagined ( I really should read dust jackets *before* a book has me hooked), I'm not sure *what* I thought about "Buffalo warrior"!, and Trans sister radio was... well.. it didn't quite come together, but I *never* in a million years thought I could relate to transgender issues....

"Set This House in Order" was another weird, but haunting book... told from the perspective of someone with multiple personalities... intense, often unbelievable, but, despite some plot absurdities, parts of the book have really stayed with me.

I recently finished a Dumas orgy (this probably belongs in the brain candy section... except I did some in French!) and reread Anna Karenina & Age of Innocence.

Population 485: Meeting your Neighbors one Siren at a time. The title caught my eye on the library display shelf, and with my own memories of being on the receiving end of EMT care still vivid this book really caught me. And "On Call: A Doctor's Days & Nights in Residency" (Emily Transue). I just finished this yesterday & am still processing it... on the one hand, the anecdotes are very real & often deeply moving, on the other... I was hoping for fewer stories of patients & more insight into the practice of medicine... still, I do recomend this book (& I put it on my shopping list to give a special friend in medical school!)

(These belong in non fiction... sorry!)

'Sunshine" by Robin McKinley... I have loved McKinley's books since I was a tween... for her gift of storytelling and her delectable use of language... my first reaction after finishing "Sunshine" was that this is her best book... but I was so caught up in it that I didn't have the distance to evaluate that reaction... which is in and of itself a compliment to the book!

"Robber Bride" (Atwood) and Dunsany's "King of Elfland's Daughter" are waiting for me as we speak....

Family reads:

Woods Walk, Wisdom of the Crows, Savitri, Portals of Faith, Art and Wonder.

The kids & I are reading "In Search of a Homeland" (and comparing the wanderings of Aeneas to those of Odysseus!) Soon we will move on to "Casear's gallic Wars". DH & the kids are midway through Fellowship of the Ring & the kids have just finished an intensive few weeks of Narnia story tapes - and are relistening to the Elizabeth Enright stories on tape.

M-mv folks, I don't know how you manage the regular "nightstand" entries! With 6 nonstop readers & 2 little listeners... I can barely skim the surface of our book consumption! Wow! I will be even more appreciative next month now that I realize how hard it is to list a sampling of what everyone is/has been reading!!

And, btw, thank you so much for the smorgasboard of interesting articles, provocative opinion pieces, tantalizing quotes, and, best of all, long book lists! I am no longer on the [forum in which we "met"], but I still remember with such pleasure your contributions, [M-mv], and am so glad to be able to "see" you here! It is so nice to hear from folks who unabashedly *enjoy* the little people in their lives & to have some validation that parenting [and] learning in general are joyful, satisfying endeavors... sometimes laborious, but not that intrinsically *difficult*.

Anyway, thanks for sharing so generously of yourself and your family's joy & adventures.

Nope, E. Thank *you.*

Amazon

From the "Worth repeating" files

The following is excerpted from our 1.10.2004 entry.

Ayup.

Yes. I am aware that I have exhausted my supply of this particular affectation, but in the first ten days of this new year, it has been the equivalent of biting my tongue (hard!), lest by my commentary or (gasp!) opinion statements I cause offense. Then again...

Okay. Mincing out onto another philosophical limb:

Here's an idea. If you are challenged by someone's assertions or opinions, you could, of course, choose the offense-taking posture, as in, "How dare so-and-so besmirch [insert idea, activity, text, person, film, etc. here]! How he injures me when he derides [said idea, activity, text, person, film, etc.]." Huh? How can his opinion hurt you?

Think about that for second. How can an opinion hurt you? Quite simply, it can't. You can choose hurt as a response to an opinion, sure. But the opinion itself cannot hurt you. That bears repeating: An opinion cannot hurt you.

The psychic noise we hear after the collision of ideas (opinions) is a space-time in which we have a great opportunity for personal growth. I've posited elsewhere that what moves or shoves us from complacency into a place in which we can become more fully aware and alive is regular and rigorous self-scrutiny. What better time for rigorous self-scrutiny, then, than following the collision of our ideas with someone else's opinions? Yes, the process of reevaluation can hurt — a lot. But it's the process of measuring our ideas, choices, and opinions against those of others (or even against those of our younger selves or of our "ideal" selves — heavy stuff, that) that causes pain (of the philosophical variety); it is, most assuredly, not the ideas, choices, and opinions of others that hurts. So... Don't. Blame. Them.

Get it?

To blame others for holding certain views and/or stating them with confidence is foolish. Challenge their views? Absolutely. Engage others in vigorous discourse about worthwhile subjects? Yes! Attempt to get folks we regard (and even some we don't) to, if not change their opinions, than at least participate in the same sort of scrutiny in which we are engaged? You bet! Reevaluate our own beliefs in light of theirs? If we respect the source, yeah, of course. Choose to discard the new information in favor of our own? If on reinvestigating our own convictions we are confident of their value, yes, indeed. But berate others for expressing their opinion? Well, let's just say, that's not the best use of our time and energy.

An emotional response has its place, but a reader, a thinker, a learner must choose to push a little further than that initial what? anger? hurt? disgust? to understand his response to input, evaluate that input, and either maintain or realign his own view.

Enough said. I think.

Making time

I've fielded some derivation of this question too often to count: How do you have time to read, write, keep house, etc.?

[Insert heavy sigh here. I mean, well, it's more than a little wearying to contemplate the lives of people who haven't the self-discipline to determine for themselves how to do what matters most, isn't it?]*

I make a modest living from my writing, so asking me how I find time to write is a bit like asking, for example, a barkeep how he finds time to tend bar or an information systems engineer how she makes time to develop projects, no? I mean, gee, we all must work!

The rest? The reading, learning, living, blogging even? Well, I sleep less to read more, and I have, quite simply, never understood the big deal about keeping an organized and comfortable home.

But if you must have a list, consider this list of don'ts the next time you find that you haven't enough time to do it all.

Unless you're training for a marathon or pursuing a career as a model or professional athlete, don't spend a lot of time working out. Just do enough to maintain good health.

Don't fuss with complicated hairstyles or "busy" clothes or make-up.

Don't answer the telephone. Turn the ringer off. When/if you have time for telephone conversations, make a call. Amazing how much time this alone saves.

Don't waste time complaining about the commonplace (e.g., the way your son forgets to turn his socks right side out before dropping them in the hamper, the way your spouse this, and his or her mother that, and your mother ... and the neighbor ... and the people at the library ... blah, blah, blah). Energy- and time-sapping stuff, that.

Don't go shopping. No mall walking. No window shopping. Keep a list. Pick up the items on the list. Work the clearance racks at the end of the season, in one maybe two trips. But hit the mall or Wal*Mart or wherever for no particular reason? Perish the thought. Bookstores are, of course, an exception.

Don't read junk mail.

Or catalogues. 'think this is a trivial suggestion? Consider all the time some folks waste paging through the Christmas season's offerings. You know you don't have $75 for a letter opener from Levenger. Drop the catalogues in the can before the mail deliverer has sped from the mailbox. Clothes catalogues? Why? If you want to dream of opulence, read a Victorian novel or certain Shakespearean plays. Why waste time mulling over the Nordstrom's catalogue when the best sales are in-store at the end of the season? You get the idea. Book catalogues are, of course, the exception.

Don't join clubs.

In general, don't say, "Yes," to anyone. This is harsh, but grow adept at looking nearly every person (excluding your children, spouse and/or significant other, and boss (or editor or client)) who thinks you owe him or her a piece of your time in the eye and saying, "No, but best wishes with [insert time-sucking activity here]." Trust me, this isn't going to cause any death-bed regrets. "Oh, how I wish I had spent more time organizing that [insert time-sucking activity here]!" Yeah. No.

Unless you are particularly gifted in one or another craft such that your creations make anticipated gifts and/or money, don't scrapbook or craft.

And don't compete with neighbors in the "who can out-decorate everyone else" during Halloween and Christmas seasons. Display simple, pretty decorations. End of story.

Don't indulge in home and/or garden magazines.

Or home and/or garden shows. They only inspire time- (and money-) sapping projects that keep you from family field trips, game nights, books, and the occasional lazy morning in bed with coffee, muffins, and two papers.

Don't cook elaborate meals.

Sometimes, don't even cook. That's why god made takeout. Really. So readers, thinkers, and autodidacts don't starve.

Don't waste time on doubt. Why invite discontent by perpetually glancing at what he or she is doing?

Similarly, don't dabble in self-doubt. Much. (See this entry for more on this topic.)

And then there will be time to read. And read some more. And to write and learn. And to keep a home that makes your family happy. A home in which you will have time to live and learn and laugh too loudly.

A new slogan, then: Just don't.

______________________

* We were sorry to learn that this sentence offended some visitors who mistook our assertion for a personal insult. It isn't. It's just our opinion. (For more about opinions, click here.)

Look. We're in this for us, not you. While we're glad so many other readers, thinkers, and autodidacts enjoy the un-blog, ultimately, "Mental multivitamin" is all about our journey, the synthesis of our reading, thinking, dreaming, talking, learning, writing, living, and laughing. And the simple fact is that, damn, it is wearying for us to contemplate the lives of people who can't figure out how to do what interests them. We're allowed to say that, okay? But, hey, if it bothers you, note that shiny, happy blogs are only a click away.

[B]estow yourself with speed....

"In Praise of Almost Great Books"

The following is excerpted from this article in The Common Review, the magazine of the Great Books Foundation.

Reading or teaching all great books all of the time without occasional pause for lighter fare is not necessarily dangerous to your health. But such a practice might be akin to dining on steak au poivre with no appetizer, dessert, or piping hot espresso, preferably taken at an outdoor café. The digestion suffers. One of my graduate school professors, who has spent much of his adult life comparing the variant texts of Hamlet, confessed one evening in a seminar to his guilty pleasure of stooping to Anthony Trollope for bedtime reading. His example, I think, is well taken. An earlier sage, Samuel Johnson, wisely advised, "A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good."

...

We are indebted to the almost great books. We need them. They deserve more respect. For one thing, they are indispensable to the process of literary judgment. There can be no canon without the less-than-canonical. Only by reading prolifically and promiscuously can we can decide which books deserve rereading—for that is the most tangible criterion for discriminating between the great and the merely good.

Read the entire piece.

Hey! People like us!

From "Oh,To Freely Pursue the Scholarly Life!":

“You have freedom to follow your own bliss without regard to fashions and trends,”said Ronald Gross,an independent scholar. “You can pick up any subject,and nobody is going to say ‘no,’” said Odeda Rosenthal, who has written a reference book on colorblindness.

Working from home offers advantages such as the freedom from papers to grade or departmental meetings to attend.The drawbacks tend to be financial. “To me, there’s nothing like a regular income,” said sociologist Nathan Glazer, who has taught at Berkeley and Harvard.

Many independent scholars have day jobs or hold down several small jobs to sustain themselves. Julia Ballerini, who researches 19th-century travel photography, speaks of “supporting my habit.”

Hey! "Support my habit," folks. If you're enjoying your "Mental multivitamin" and a purchase that can be made at Amazon.com is in your future, please make your purchase via one of the many Amazon links on this site (including this one!). And if a book, movie, or magazine we've mentioned sounds like your cup of French roast, well, please, click on the hyperlinked titled. Many thanks, readers, thinkers, autodidacts, and visitors.

The article concludes, "'One of the problems is that independent scholars are so damned independent. It’s like herding cats.'"

Heh, heh, heh.

Read the whole piece. Be inspired.

Too funny

'Mary Poppins' Registers to Vote in Ohio

Neil Steinberg cracks me up.

From his October 15 column:

I should point out an interesting reaction to my column earlier this week that managed to sneer at predictive dreams, the power of prayer, and the intentions of God Almighty, all within a few succinct paragraphs. Because I did some prediction myself -- commenting on the often surprising meanness of the faithful -- it seems to have dulled the usual nasty fusillade. A sort of homeopathic cure, sprinkling petals of bile within the work itself to ward more off.

"Surprising meanness of the faithful." Heh, heh, heh.

This bit from the same column caused me to wonder if I could persuade Mr. Steinberg to bookmark "Mental multivitamin" because he has, quite obviously, been reading the wrong blogs:

Thus I've never gotten into this whole "blog" business -- the personal diaries of various self-appointed commentators who pour out the tortured musings of their hearts to dedicated handfuls, at least until they get tired and quit. I have tried to read a few of the more popular -- and some of the not-at-all popular -- and found that, in general, the lack of interesting material to be culled buried under huge expanses of vomitous verbiage makes the entire endeavor a waste of time.

The recommended daily allowance

Richard II

Yea, but not change his spots: take but my shame.
And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord,
The purest treasure mortal times afford
Is spotless reputation: that away,
Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.
A jewel in a ten-times-barred-up chest
Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast.
Mine honour is my life; both grow in one:
Take honour from me, and my life is done.

Hey, our 4.4.2004 RDA on Shakespeare is worth revisiting. From that entry:

The point is that it was the "beloved groundlings" to whom Shakespeare and company played. To us. The Mountain Dew-swigging, overalls-wearing, pun-loving, regular folk.

Frankenfish

From "Experts fear 'Frankenfish' has terrorized harbor":

On Thursday, the Illinois Natural Resources Department confirmed that a 17-inch fish caught Saturday was a snakehead, a feared Frankenfish known to eat native fish and compete with them for food. The department believes the fish caught by a Tinley Park man is a northern variety that can survive Chicago winters, but is asking the Field [Museum] for help.

It is unknown how the freshwater Asian fish got into the harbor, but Willink said it was likely "somebody put it in there intentionally."

More recently, Reuters reported:

The dreaded Northern Snakehead, a voracious predator dubbed the "Frankenfish" that can breathe out of water and wriggle across land, has invaded the Great Lakes, authorities said on Friday.

Scientists with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources identified the 18-inch-long (46-cm-long), sharp-toothed fish netted over the weekend in a harbor near Chicago's downtown by a fisherman, who put it in his freezer and posted a photograph of the creature on the Internet.

A native of China, the Northern Snakehead was first discovered in 2002 breeding in East Coast ponds -- one of which was poisoned and another drained -- and has since been spotted in the Potomac River in Virginia, in Florida and in other places -- but not, until now, in the Great Lakes.

Trail of History

Tucked in a one of the secret pockets of Northern Illinois, you'll find Glacial Park, the “crown jewel” of the McHenry County Conservation District" (MCCD).

This past weekend, the MCCD sponsored the annual Trail of History, a "living history" interpretive event. Interpreters from across the country portrayed life as it was from 1670–1850 in the former Northwest Territory, which encompasses present day Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and portions of eastern Minnesota. The event demonstrated the interrelationship between nature, man, and cultural development.

Ayup. It was cool.

Caffeine buzz

From "Scientist Teaching Bacteria to Eat Coffee Plant's Caffeine":

In what could be a page taken from a science fiction novel, a scientist in his laboratory is trying to teach bacteria how to devour and destroy the caffeine contained in a coffee plant.

If successful, which the scientist says is probably years away, the experiment may yield a naturally decaffeinated brew that could have a richer and deeper taste than the decaf fare currently available.

Decaffeinated coffee has always struck me as being a most ridiculous concoction, rather like "near beer" or nicotine-free cigarettes. I mean, what, precisely, is the point? (She asks while gulping from a soup-bowl-sized mug of the dark brown elixir that magically moves her from point A to B to C, etc., each morning.)

The elephant in this virtual living room

We're aware that our refusal to speak to certain, shall we say, controversial matters has flummoxed more than a few visitors. We get it. You think that by knowing our choice, you will, for better or worse, understand us. Never mind that if you don't already understand what we're doing here, you never will. We'll roll with you on this one.

So, you want to know to which side we have thrown our support?

Fine, then.

Now you know.

Oh! Not what you were expecting?

Heh, heh, heh.

Links

In our first template, the links below appeared in the sidebar. We haven't reposted them since May, and they're worth repeating. We've boldfaced those that you might want to consider bookmarking for regular visits.

The Hobbit Name Generator

Common-Place — "exploring and exchanging ideas about early American history and culture"

Frog Guts — virtual dissections

Hieroglyphs

"TerraFly (R) changes the way you view your world"

Roger Ebert

Build your vocabulary "A Word a Day"

A Common Reader

American Science & Surplus

The Library of Congress

Hank the Cowdog's Official Web Site

The Underground Grammarian

Set daily puzzle

Amazon.com

The power of unsolicited praise

Lindsay at "Twenty Something" discovered us. She writes, in part:

How clever -- a filter blog (or un-blog, as they dubbed it) -- run by several, for the benefit of any and all. It's a little like a wiki, but limited by specific editors (and a little prettier to boot.) Not an "omigod, my boyfriend ***KISSED*** me!!!" or an "I got up late this morning and ate a bagel and now I'm really tired" to be found. This blog almost flaunts its distance from the personal lives of the collaborators. That's simply not what it's about. A personal entry wouldn't belong -- this much is obvious after even a quick read.

And later:

It is straightforward, no-nonsense writing, there for the purpose of education and indirect persuasion (my favorite kind of persuasion).

Yeah. That about says it all.

Election countdown

R.T.

Regular readers are familiar with R.T.'s contributions to "Mental multivitamin," and will likely be as delighted as we were to learn that we received two splendid essays from R.T. this morning, inspired, in part, by recent posts.

Rather than simply paste the text here, we've appended each piece to the appropriate entry so that her remarks can be read in context. (Re)visit this entry and this; and scroll down for R.T.'s comments.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

We first wrote about Eats, Shoots & Leaves in our 12.15.2003 entry, "Not for grammar geeks only." We then featured it a few months later in the 4.13.2004 RDA, following up on the recommendation about a month later: "Rules are important, no question about it." In July, we mused about "The intersection of grammar geek and philosopher chic," linking Louis Menand's review of the Truss treatise on punctuation. The book is also given a nod here.

We've sold more copies of Eats than the next six M-mv top-selling titles combined, surely enough for it to qualify as a "runaway 'Mental multivitamin' bestseller."

So. Tell us. How have we missed this? Yes, another entry for the so-slim-as-to-be-nearly-invisible file entitled, "Worthwhile online quizzes" (note the word "worthwhile," please).

Death comes for the father of deconstruction

French philosopher Jacques Derrida is dead. From the NYT (required but free registration):

Mr. Derrida was known as the father of deconstruction, the method of inquiry that asserted that all writing was full of confusion and contradiction, and that the author's intent could not overcome the inherent contradictions of language itself, robbing texts - whether literature, history or philosophy - of truthfulness, absolute meaning and permanence. The concept was eventually applied to the whole gamut of arts and social sciences, including linguistics, anthropology, political science, even architecture.

Leonard Bast muses on Derrida and deconstruction.

On the nightstand (under the pillow, in the knapsack, etc.)

This entry would be more aptly titled "What we've been doing instead of blogging" because lately we've been wondering just how much more living and learning we could squeeze from our already fulfilling days if we never logged in.

Nope, not even for e-mail.

Some thoughts: We've always known, despite assertions to the contrary, that a real living room (especially one as book-rich as ours!) is preferable to a virtual living room. That books are more interesting than boards and (*gasp*) blogs (especially those dreadful mommy blogs) should be a given. Honestly, how often must you read about the husband, housekeeping, and homework woes of virtual strangers? We'd daresay you'd be better served following a soap: The grammar is usually better, and, at the very least, one can sidestep the banalities that brew the virtual coffee klatch, to say nothing of the pictures of cats, cluttered homes, and craft projects.

Heresy.

We know.

On the other had, while we're no fans of bad blogs, we've certainly recommended a couple of terrific sites, and we've been known to frequent a board or two. No matter how cozy and familiar it may seem, though, a message board is just that: a message board. It is not a "community." (Zounds, how tired we are of that particular myth.)

Finally, truth told, no matter how much we all enjoy this un-blog, it's certainly nowhere near as compelling as, say, Jack and Harry.

No, we're not signing off. Not just yet, anyway. But the thought is crossing our minds with more frequency than usual. We're creeping up on the one-year anniversary of this enterprise and recently realized that three hundred sixty-five days spreading the message of autodidacticism may be a long-enough mission.

On to other topics.

Yeah, we've got an (e)mailbag full of "What you're reading" responses yet to post. We'll get to them... we think. Right now, though, here are the books that became a part of the geography of our imaginations since Friday night. Repeat after us: "Books are better than blogs."

Henry IV, Part I
Henry IV, Part II
If you have the money to invest, consider the Complete Arkangel Shakespeare: 38 Fully-Dramatized Plays.

The Complete Pelican Shakespeare
Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare: A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying the Works of Shakespeare (Isaac Asimov)
Shakespeare A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Plays, His Poems, His Life and Times, and More (Charles Boyce)
Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (Stephen Greenblatt)
Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (Harold Bloom)

Wisdom from Bloom:

Shakespearean secularists should manifest their Bardoaltry by celebrating the Resurrection of Sir John Falstaff. It should be made, unofficially but pervasively, an international holiday, a Carnival of wit, with multiple performances of Henry IV, Part One. Let it be a day for loathing political ambition, religious hypocrisy, and false friendship, and let it be marked by wearing bottles of sack in our holsters.

The Resurrection? Act V, Scene IV.

[PRINCE HENRY] spieth FALSTAFF on the ground

What, old acquaintance! could not all this flesh
Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell!
I could have better spared a better man:
O, I should have a heavy miss of thee,
If I were much in love with vanity!
Death hath not struck so fat a deer to-day,
Though many dearer, in this bloody fray.
Embowell'd will I see thee by and by:
Till then in blood by noble Percy lie.

Exit PRINCE HENRY

FALSTAFF
[Rising up] Embowelled! if thou embowel me to-day,
I'll give you leave to powder me and eat me too
to- morrow. 'Sblood,'twas time to counterfeit, or
that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot too.
Counterfeit? I lie, I am no counterfeit: to die,
is to be a counterfeit; for he is but the
counterfeit of a man who hath not the life of a man:
but to counterfeit dying, when a man thereby
liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true and
perfect image of life indeed. The better part of
valour is discretion; in the which better part I
have saved my life.'Zounds, I am afraid of this
gunpowder Percy, though he be dead: how, if he
should counterfeit too and rise? by my faith, I am
afraid he would prove the better counterfeit.
Therefore I'll make him sure; yea, and I'll swear I
killed him. Why may not he rise as well as I?
Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me.
Therefore, sirrah,

Stabbing him

with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.

Takes up HOTSPUR on his back

Re-enter PRINCE HENRY and LORD JOHN OF LANCASTER

PRINCE HENRY
Come, brother John; full bravely hast thou flesh'd
Thy maiden sword.

LANCASTER
But, soft! whom have we here?
Did you not tell me this fat man was dead?

PRINCE HENRY
I did; I saw him dead,
Breathless and bleeding on the ground. Art
thou alive?
Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight?
I prithee, speak; we will not trust our eyes
Without our ears: thou art not what thou seem'st.

FALSTAFF
No, that's certain; I am not a double man: but if I
be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy:

Throwing the body down

if your father will do me any honour, so; if not, let
him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either
earl or duke, I can assure you.

PRINCE HENRY
Why, Percy I killed myself and saw thee dead.

FALSTAFF
Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how this world is given to
lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath;
and so was he: but we rose both at an instant and
fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I may be
believed, so; if not, let them that should reward
valour bear the sin upon their own heads. I'll take
it upon my death, I gave him this wound in the
thigh: if the man were alive and would deny it,
'zounds, I would make him eat a piece of my sword.

Splendid stuff, no?

Let's see... what else? Ah, yes.

The Egyptologist: A Novel (Arthur Phillips)
Fair.

The Great Fire (Shirley Hazzard)
Excellent.

The Falls (Joyce Carol Oates)
Excellent but, then, I'm terribly biased: She's been a favorite of mine for more than two decades. Where, oh, where, is this remarkable writer's Nobel Prize, eh?

In addition to adding his wholehearted support of Bloom's assertion that we celebrate Falstaff's resurrection, Master M-mv recommends that teen readers revisit Freak the Mighty(Rodman Philbrick). He also recommends Who Said What? Philosophy Quotes for Teens (Dale Bick Carlson), Being Good: A Short Introduction to Ethics (Simon Blackburn), and Nanotechnology: A Gentle Introduction to the Next Big Idea (Mark Ratner and Daniel Ratner) [not pictured].

The youngest M-mvs favored:

Freddy and the Perilous Adventuree (Walter R. Brooks)
None of us weary of Freddy and his pals. Old-fashioned fun.

Silverwing (Keith Oppel)
They read this as a fictional complement to a terrific science unit on bats (more about that some other time).

Nanotechnology: Invisible Machines (Sandy Fritz) [not pictured]
Yeah. Big brother affects their choices more often than not. And that, most certainly, is a fine, fine thing.

Books are better than blogs. Books are better than blogs. Books are....

_________________________________
Previous "On the nightstand" entries:
9.13.2004
8.24.2004
7.19.2004
6.12.2004
5.19.2004
4.22.2004
3.12.2004
2.15.2004
1.26.2004
12.31.2003


Added 10.13.2004:

This from the incomparable R.T.:

Are blogs better than books? Are apples better than oranges? Can't answer that one.

Is your family, your real life, yourself more important than maintaining a blog? Of course.

So... your answer lies in what you (and possibly your family) get out of blogging. Maybe it filled space, a need, a requirement for you at one time that is no longer as necessary. If the interest has diminished or the feedback from the blog has become "ho-hum, more of the same" or your desire to share your excitement in a new idea or an interesting book less of a desire, then you have answered your own question.

I edited our homeschool support group newsletter for years. In it, I wrote a monthly editorial about homeschooling. Mostly, it was cathartic for me. Occasionally, people responded well to it. Eventually, after so many years of homeschooling, I realized I didn't have quite as many questions about homeschooling anymore, that my "audience" had heard from me enough, that I hadn't much new to say about homeschooling that hadn't already been said, and that the time it required to do the newsletter was time I could better spend on something else. I also recognized that someone else could do the job I was doing just as well, maybe even better. If nothing else, it would be a fresh perspective. So, I stopped. Someone else did take over the newsletter. In some ways, it is better than ever. More announcements, more coverage of what's going on. However, the editorial section is gone for lack of anyone who wants to contribute. Oh, well.

Maybe it would help if you asked some of those same questions of yourself in regard to your blog. (You probably already are.) Is anyone else out there covering the same kind of thing, saying the same kinds of things, thinking the same kinds of things? Is it important to you to provide this kind of service for a virtual community and does it make you feel good in some way? Has your need to write about what moves you or makes you think changed? s it being fulfilled in some other way? Could someone else, would someone else, fill the hole in the blogsphere you leave behind? Do you care?

I can answer, as one who checks your blog once or twice a week that it is only one of two that I read. That doesn't mean there aren't any others out there that might interest me. I just don't have time to look for them, and yours is very satisfying. It is a blog that, if I knew how to do it and was so able, I would feel proud of doing myself. It is also a blog that inspires me to the opposite view of human culture from what I decried in my previous [essay (see R.T.'s remarks at the bottom of this entry)], to think that there IS hope for original and nuanced thinking, deep thinking, challenging work done first and foremost because it is rewarding. So I would say, as one reader, I do care and am biased toward you continuing your hard work.

Well, a mouthful again. You will do what you must, of course. Your thinking public may be less rewarding than the books and loved ones in your living room, and that was true the day you began your blog as well as on this one year anniversary. But as just one among many in cyberspace, I am certain your voice has touched lives, effected thinking, and encouraged real learning. That's certainly a meaningful legacy, and like most things that challenge and enrich us in quiet ways these days, it is materially unrewarding and difficult to measure for the one whose labor is most required.

Thank you for that effort. This is my my selfish vote in favor of the continuation of your blog because it is still fresh, it is still unique, and it still challenges me.

Whine, whine, whine

Three Sun-Times articles bemoan the difficulties that attend modern mothering:

"'Supermoms' draw line in sandbox"

"Moms stand up to the boss"
The following sentence may elegantly explain all of those angst-ridden mommy blogs:

Because women today have already proven themselves professionally by the time they start having families, many women say they feel more insecure about being mothers than workers.

Striking a chord with housewives
I haven't seen this television show, but "The Rage Diaries" diarist wrote a terrific review, which we recommended last week.

-gry words

From Richard Lederer:

The greatest service I can perform for the American people is to announce here that the gry question is one of the most outrageous and time-wasting linguistic hoaxes in our nation's history. The poser slithered onto the American scene on a New York TV quiz show, in early 1975. I've tried to bury gry before, but it keeps rising, like some angry, hungry monstrosity from Tales From the Crypt.

The answer to the infernal question is that there is no answer, at least no satisfactory answer. I advise anybody who happens on the angry+hungry+? poser to stop burning time and to move on to a more productive activity, like counting the number of angels on the head of a pin or waiting for a decrease in our property taxes.

Complete article here.

The lunar eclipse

Plan now.

The best astronomical events usually seem to happen at the worst times and places — at 3 a.m. low above your most obstructed horizon, or maybe only in East Antarctica. But not this time, not for observers anywhere in the Americas. On October 27, 2004, the full Moon will undergo a deep total eclipse lasting for 1 hour 22 minutes, when it will be high in the eastern sky after dark but while most people are still awake and about.

Read more here.

Wagner's "The Ring of the Nibelung"

In our 7.19.2004 "On the nightstand (under the pillow, in the knapsack, etc.)," we noted that we had been reading about "The Ring." And now, heaven! "Lyric revives 'Das Rheingold' as 'Ring' prepares to roll in March" (Sun-Times, October 4, 2004).

Not familiar? Start here. Then borrow this. You'll be hooked.

More resources:

Wagner's Ring: Turning the Sky Round (M. Owen Lee)
Wagner's Ring: A Listener's Companion and Concordance (J.K. Holman)
The Wagner Operas (Ernest Newman)
The World Theatre of Wagner (Charles Osborne).

Ayup.

After the first and only vice presidential debate Tuesday night, it is clear that Dick Cheney and John Edwards are more articulate than the bosses they defended.

("No. 2's came through where No. 1's couldn't," Chicago Sun-Times, October 6, 2004)

Dumbed down

'Dumbing down' is often seen as being about the rise of reality TV and other dumb culture. In fact, says Frank Furedi, the problem is much bigger than Big Brother.

'Cultural institutions like universities and galleries no longer challenge us or encourage us to question what we know. Instead they flatter us. But flattery will get us nowhere.' Not content with having taken on risk-aversion, therapy culture and the paranoid parenting industry in his previous books, Furedi, a sociologist and prolific author who doesn't suffer faddish thinking gladly, lays in to dumbing down (or 'twenty-first century philistinism' as he prefers to call it) in his latest offering.

Read "Down with 21st century philistinism" and then get a copy of Frank Furedi's Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone?

Added on 10.13.2004:

This from the incomparable R.T.:

In this short article, Mr. Furedi is profiled raising the questions that mirror my own concerns about art and education. I have been increasingly put-off by museums that cater to the perceived short attention spans of children with bells and whistles and "soundbites" of information in the name of boosting attendance. I am concerned about art galleries and critics that make cheerleading for a particular artist or culture an objective in and of itself. I dislike writers who are almost exclusively molded and promoted through publishing industries or in the sheltered confines of academia. And I am appalled by by art and literature that is insidiously censored for children and adults for the purpose of promoting particular points of view. (See Diane Ravitch's The Language Police.)

Well, that may seem like a lot of complaints, but it's really, in my opinion, the tip of the iceberg.

Besides putting a stranglehold on thought and discourse, the disease of being dumbed down is currently spread from an unlikely source, as the author seems to point a finger; the liberal left. As a thinking liberal (at least in kinder moments I like that label) who occasionally crosses the abyss to a conservative notion or two, I have to agree. I continually find a host of "shoulds" and "do's" and lines drawn in the sand in both artistic process and educational openness among those who ally themselves with traditional leftist (oxymoron no longer) viewpoints. Views that squelch free-thinking and questioning with attitudes and mantras that say it is NOT okay to present children as wrong sometimes, native cultures as having selfish interests, some kinds of attitudes toward sex as emotionally destructive, all religious interests suspect, all nationalism (when said nationalism supports a Western nation or any of the top-dog countries) as evil. The hypocrisy is rampant. And the blows to asking the good question, presenting a new way of looking at something, finding the value in the obscure, inspiring new thinking and articulate debate, have increased as our minds are numbed and confused.

Show me the unaffected intellectual, the autodidact, the fresh artistic perspective, and I will show you someone whose interests are rarely caught by others (except perhaps, in the annals of a particular blog-site), whose motives are questioned, whose work is ignored, whose nuanced thinking is disregarded for the flashy or the flaming and hence relegated to obscurity.

And while I wouldn't go so far as to blame this problem in our culture entirely on the Liberal left (the Conservative Right has long done it's part toward anti-intellectualism and against openness), I have to challenge the Left, as Mr. Furedi seems to be doing, because they appear to be what they are not. And because their apparent lack of interest in finding and nurturning new meaning and insight leaves few, if any, voices to carry the torch.

Well, that may be extreme. (Chuckling a bit after that tirade!) But IF Mr. Furedi's views go the distance in his book as this article portends and challenges both politically correct thinking as well as censorship and promotion of agendas by those who have a broader voice, and IF he offers a possible direction for the future, well then maybe,,just maybe, I will grab that as a lifeline from which I can pull myself out of the stagnant waters of the culture in which we now seem steeped.

Some more "What you're reading" responses

Remember: We're not providing hyperlinks. Just scroll to the bottom of the entry, though, and use the search box. Thanks!

This from R.T., another M-mv favorite:

Books I am reading, and the not-so mysterious linkage of how they came to be on my nightstand recently.

Azir Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran lead me to re-visit Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading, which lead me to cut my teeth on Crime and Punishment, which I had to put aside as I have so many times before for lack of a strong mental focus and the long block of hours I require to sustain that. (Which is no slur of the book, of course, just says something about my chaotic brain.)
And If you haven't read RLIT, then I should clue you in; the author is an unabashed Nabokofile and, well, I have to share some of her enthusiasm, if not all of her passion, which is what caused me to pick up Nabokov.

The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters: A Novel by Elisabeth Robinson I chose because of the recommendation by Jay MckInerney on the back flap who wrote Bright Lights, Big City (his one and only to hit the big time, I believe) which I liked. But after reading Hunt Sisters I realized that what I really liked about BLBC was the fast pace and his particular sense of humor but most interestingly, his use of the second-person point of view, which is unusual, especially for a novel. Hunt Sisters is only moderately paced, and it is first-person POV, so the thrills just weren't there, although her self-deprecating humor does bring to mind MckInerney. I almost didn't finish it, but lo and behold! I stuck with it and now, 3/4 of the way through, I just have to find out if the protagonist will actually get Don Quixote made as Don Quixote, or if the Hollywood powers-that-be will succeed in renaming it Pancho Sanza and have Quixote keep his idealism in the end?

Daniel Halpern's collection titled The Art of the Short Story has been by my bedside for a while. Some delicious and wonderful contemporary short stories by authors from around the world. Which led me to pull out some old favorites, among them Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Illyich (again with the Russians!) which got me thinking about Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman. Is there any middle-class figure more universally downtrodden than Willy Loman? Which of course, got me thinking about about Jame's Thurber's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (a completely different way of making it through the day had Mitty than Loman), which made me think of Don Quixote and brought me back to the Hunt Sisters and... well, do you see the method in my madness yet? Quixote, Illyich, Mitty, Loman, Mother Russia... tilting at windmills, the angst of a life not well lived, delusions of grandeur, the spirit of the forsaken?

No, I did not re-read Don Quixote, although I shall one day. After I finish Crime and Punishment and probably before I tackle The Brothers Karamazov; again, which aren't in the near future at this point. But, since I had made my way back to the Russians and put aside C&P, I took up reading Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile by Joesph Pearce.

After all the Russian tragedy, and the news from Chechnya and Putin's new plan to secure the citizenry, I am less than hopeful for this wild and wonderful and complicated culture to which the political climate has been more brutal than the land itself.

Finally, waiting for me to crack open, is a newly minted copy of The Human Comedy, by William Saroyan. No. I admit. I have never read this one. I have a feeling I will need to mix it up with some lighter fare though (especially after all that Russian pathos and brutality and the sturm and drang of Mitty and Loman), so I am also going to peek into a new one that just came to me by mail by Anne Tyler called The Amateur Marriage, which found me because I forgot to check off my selection for last month's book-by-mail club. I don't yet see any connections to the others, but then only time will tell if I can somehow parlay these back to Russian literature or not.

L., who signed herself "Looking forward to reading the other contributions," writes, "This is always fun. Let's see... I just finished Lewis Lapham's Theater of War and am returning to his Waiting for the Barbarians, which I left midway through; revisiting Culture Shock! Australia; Gulliver's Travels and Genevieve Foster's Abraham Lincoln's World are our current read-alouds; and the Shaaras' Gods and Generals and The Killer Angels along with Carl Hiaasen's Skinny Dip have all been spending a little too much time on my bedside table."

M. notes, "OK, you will recognize most of these titles since they came from your nightstand. How To Read a Book by Adler and VanDoren, How To Read a Poem by Hirsch, Another Life by Michael Korda, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity by Nancy Pearcey and, lest you think this is normal for me, I have Dee Henderson's Christian fiction novel, True Courage. In the past, this (what my husband lovingly refers to as Christian Harlequin Romances) would be the meat and potatoes instead of just an occasional snack. I'm really trying. Oh, and I am listening to Gulliver's Travels on
tape.

M., you're doing well. Very well.

J. in MO writes, "I'm glad you asked about what I've been reading; I've been meaning to send you a note about one of your mentions. I just finished Candyfreak by Steve Almond. Hilarious, remarkably informative and a little sad. Almond has a great way with words -- witty, a bit shocking, and hunger-inducing! Not a book to read on a diet. Jane Eyre is on the night-stand; it was time to read it again. Sister Miriam Joseph's The Trivium is there, as well. Here at the computer is Elizabeth Castro's Creating a Web Page with HTML because I'm wanting to learn something new. The kids have been enjoying Kenneth Graehme's The Reluctant Dragon. And my husband has just gone to sea with Aubrey and Maturin in Master and Commander. I think those are most of our current selections, throw in several Babar stories, a Curious George, and an occasional reading of Maybelle the Cable Car, and that's what our family is reading!"

Almond is amazing, isn't he? More tomorrow, folks. Scroll down a bit for the search box.

Addendum: Box deleted. Please use this link: Amazon. Many thanks!

Bread Crumbs

Another from the "Why we check stats" file. What a find. And I loved this bit about us:

Yes, I have added Mental Multivitamin while deleting three other blogs from my blog roll... wanna make something of it? After a little exploration, I have concluded that if anything of real import occurs on any of the other three, it will be duly reported on M-mv.

In addition to simplifying my own blog-checking life, I am also expressing my gratitude for posts such as [this], just one example among many worth reading; it really answers "Why read?" in a more satisfying manner than the previously posted blogs.

Many thanks, "Bread Crumbs."

Desperate Housewives

We've recommended "The Rage Diaries" many times. Now we urge you to check out Lisa's latest review over at TeeVee. The gal can think and write. And her review is spot on.

But ultimately my biggest problem with the show is this: it tries to have its cake and eat it too, and it fails. There’s a genre in mystery publishing called “cozies,” wherein murder and mayhem are balanced by cookie-baking heroines or people whose talking cats solve crimes. This is the cozy of the suburban satire genre: it’s attempting to make us think about women’s roles in society, but it’s managed to completely eliminate larger society from the equation. Which is, in the end, kind of weird, given that the same women being shown bouncing around their airtight bubble are the ones who, in reality, drive the economy of this country, people the grass-roots movements that politicians respond to and — when they have time — raise the next generation of voters.

Just as actual Orange County citizens aren’t present anywhere in The O.C., so it goes with real housewives on Wisteria Lane. However, I’m already anticipating the first pundit piece in which it’s argued that Desperate Housewives demonstrates all the ways in which feminism has failed women by making their lives harder. The pundit will have missed the point on two counts: too many choices is still better than no choices at all, and if anything, Desperate Housewives is a look at the everyday housewife as someone who’s never held the job thinks she exists. She doesn’t have to dance around the living room anymore. All she has to do it turn on the television.

"Great minds discuss ideas...

Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people."

Wisdom from Eleanor Roosevelt, a woman who probably occupied her writing, thinking, and learning time with something far richer than complaints about housework, child-rearing, and relatives.

I'm just saying.

So, what are you folks reading?

Note: Customarily, we'd provide a hyperlink to every book listed in an entry like this. But our days are getting shorter and shorter, and the idea of cross-checking the title and author of each book and grabbing the HTML code for the Amazon links... well, let's just say, "Yuck." Instead, we'll run the entries pretty much as they came in and provide an Amazon search box at the bottom of each of the "What you're reading" entries. If you see a title that interests you, copy and paste it into the search box. Voila!

Thanks to all who responded. We'll print responses throughout the week.

Without further ado, then...

“Here’s my contribution,” writes L. (from Australia!).

"[A]fter reading Heart Songs and Other Stories (Annie Proulx), my first thought was, “Where have you been all my life?” So I rushed off to the library to explore this wonderful discovery and came home with The Shipping News, which has thoroughly hooked me in, together with a few of her other books, still to be read. I also recently rediscovered my love of Katherine Mansfield’s writing with The Garden Party and Other Stories.

"From the younger members of our family book club, the recommendations are The Borrowers (Mary Norton), Gulliver in the South Seas (retold by Gary Crew), The Horse and his Boy (C.S. Lewis), and Mr. Bear’s Picnic (Debi Gliori).

"By the way, thank you for introducing me to Simon Winchester — what a jewel."

You’re quite welcome.

Signing herself “Slightly envious in Brooklyn,” another L. submits this list:

Me:
1&2 Corinthians (Paul)
Bobos in Paradise (David Brooks)
The Out-of-Sync Child (Carol Kranowitz)
The House of Mirth (Edith Wharton)
The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton)
The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)
The King Must Die (Mary Renault)
Girl Meets God (Lauren F. Winner)
Master and Commander (Patrick O’Brian)
The Purpose Driven Life (Rick Warren)

13-year-old daughter:
I, Robot (Isaac Asimov)
All Things Bright and Beautiful (James Herriot)
The Striped Ships (Eloise Jarvis McGraw)
Knight’s Fee (Rosemary Sutcliff)
Beowulf (Seamus Heaney)
A Writer’s Notebook (Ralph Fletcher)
L’Abri (Edith Schaeffer)
Up a Road Slowly (Irene Hunt)
Anne of the Island (L.M. Montgomery)
The Rule of St. Benedict (St. Benedict)

11-year-old daughter:
Goose Chase (Patricia Kindl)
The 21 Balloons (William Pene duBois)
Pictures of Hollis Woods (Patricia Reilly Giff)
Regarding the Sink (Kate and Sarah Klise)
The Legend of Lady Ilena (Patricia Malone)
The Exiles at Home (Hilary McKay)
Little Women (Louis May Alcott)
Shadow Spinner (Susan Fletcher)
Anna of Byzantium (Tracy Barrett)
The Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum)

5-year-old daughter:
The House on East 88th Street (Bernard Waber)
Lyle, Lyle Crocodile (Bernard Waber)
A Birthday for Frances (Russell Hoban)
Egg Thoughts and Other Frances Songs (Russell Hoban)
Flicka Ricka Dicka and the New Dotted Dresses (Maj Lindman)
Flicka Ricka Dicka and the Big Red Hen (Maj Lindman)
One Lighthouse, One Moon (Anita Lobel)
Many Moons (James Thurber)
I Like to be Little (Charlotte Zolotow)
Rhymes for Annie Rose (Shirley Hughes)

4-year-old son:
Knights in Shining Armor (Gail Gibbons)
How a Book is Made (Aliki)
Amelia Bedelia (Peggy Parish)
The Art Lesson (Tomie dePaola)
Caps for Sale (Esphyr Slobodkina)
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? (Bill Martin, Jr.)
Two Little Trains (Margaret Wise Brown)
The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge (Hildegarde Swift)
Harold and the Puple Crayon (Crockett Johnson)
Hungry, Hungry Sharks! (Joanna Cole)

L. concludes, "Of course, I got to read most of the children’s books as well. Out of all these books there was only one loser — The Purpose Driven Life. Yuck. [C]ongratulations on your BIG move!"

Thank you.

K.D. writes, “M-mv has become a favorite browsing place and we would love to know what other folks are reading. We are a family in the Upstate of South Carolina. Our sons are a college freshman and a high school junior.” Here's their list:

Lost in a Good Book: I liked The Eyre Affair and this sequel is even better. This author loves books.

Kristin Lavransdatter: A challenge at first. I was discouraged by all the Norwegian names and places but persevered and was rewarded with a book that will be counted as an all-time favorite.

Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English: Helpful

Son 1
Into the Wild

Son 2
Silas Marner and Watership Down
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley: Has read a couple of times before. It's that good.

Husband
Salt

Both
The Day the World Came to Town: Story of Gander New Foundland during the 9/11 crisis. Planes diverted to Gander and there were thousands of passengers stranded in a small town. How they were provided for by the people of Gander is inspiring.

Thanks, K.D.

A. is reading Better Off by Eric Brende, The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Are You Liberal/Conservative/Confused by Richard Maybury, Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif, and Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. She writes, "I love reading books and especially having a 14-year-old to home educate so that I can read all the neat stuff he's reading."

Ah, yes. The kids are often reading the best books, no?

And to round out today's installment, D.W., an M-mv favorite and the reader who proposed the "What you're reading" entry, submits the following "pile":

Mr. [D.W.]: The Scarlet Letter, piles of rarely inspiring student's papers, and Touchstone Magazine

Mme. [D.W.]: The Summer of the Danes (Ellis Peters, Cadfael), volcano books, Ideas Have Consequences (R. Weaver)

M.: Iliad, Right Ho Jeeves, Scottish Chiefs

Z.: Hamlet, The Robe, Hardy Boys

R.: The Sword Bearer, Men of Iron

C.: Magical Melons and The Hobbit

B.: Jim Arnosky books, Henry and Mudge, Toot and Puddle and "just one more, Mama... please? every night

D.W. writes, "I didn't know if I should include the children's piles, but they offered the information. I learn so much about my family when I discover what they are reading (not what I want them to read, or think that they are reading, but what they are REALLY reading. I am glad I searched their spots to find the real goods."

Many of the contributors included the titles that had captured their young readers' imaginations, D.W., and we're glad of it.

Ah, so many, many books. Such rich inner lives. How satisfying for those of us who are readers. How satisfying and sustaining. Well, more responses soon, folks. And don't forget: Use the search box.

Note: You must scroll a bit to get to the box. Drat and tarnation.

Addendum: Box deleted. Please use this link: Amazon. Many thanks!

On their nightstand... or shelf, anyway

The bookshelf in the one-room schoolhouse at the [insert county's name] Historical Society's museum.

"[I]f our entertainments are getting dumber, why do they all seem to want to teach us something?"

"Improving ourselves to death" (Boston Globe, September 19, 2004) begins:

If there's one topic liberals and conservatives agree on, it's the intellectual and artistic emptiness of America's cultural products -- which always seem to be declining, but somehow, like Xeno's arrow, never quite arrive at a state of absolute decrepitude. Recently, without actively looking for such stuff, I have read an article blaming lousy bestsellers for illiteracy, an argument that the glut of sequels and remakes demonstrates a new low in cinematic art, and a "think piece" claiming Sony's Walkman destroyed our ability to appreciate music.

And concludes:

Undoubtedly, this sort of critical machinery deepens the cultural experience. But it threatens something precious: disposability, and the confidence that most cultural offerings are things you don't need to think about. I'm pretty sure America could survive the end of NEA-sponsored Shakespeare festivals. But the end of trash culture would really be a loss worth mourning.

Heh, heh, heh.

From the "Why we check stats" file

Many thanks to "Outer Life," "Megan and Murray McMillan," and "Leonard Bast," three worth-reading blogs that link to M-mv. This bit from Bast (whose blog is aptly subtitled "On the aesthetic in literature, music, and daily life — and why it matters")) was written in response to yesterday's M-mv entry:

And yet, I feel a certain nostalgia for the fact that once, aesthetic values required less justification than they do today, when every kind of cultural artifact has become a mere commodity, when the choice between Faulkner and Danielle Steele is seen by too many people as no different from the choice between Coke and Pepsi. It may be that we have no choice now but to be "self-taught," to preserve, in good "monastic" fashion, whatever we can, and to find like-minded folks to help us, in the blogosphere and wherever they may be.

Check them out. And stop by "Theory of the Daily." We've given them props before, but perhaps you've missed them.

And, yes, we know: We owe you folks a "What you're reading entry." Ne'er fear.