I Am Not Hamlet

  I know I failed to post this last year for what I read in 2022. So, here is what I read this past year. As always, these are listed in the order of reading and not any kind of ranking. The Shadow Lamp * Stephen R. Lawhead Book four in the Bright Empires series, continues with many of the same characters and a few new ones. The mystery of the Skin Map underscore a threat to the entire universe. The story is a bit pulpy and not Lawhead’s best (I’m speaking of the series as a whole), but still an enjoyable read for fans of Sci-fi and to a lesser extent, fantasy. Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in your Yard * Douglas W. Tallamy This continues his ideas expressed in Bringing Nature Home . Essentially, if you want to “save the planet” (a phrase full of hubris) start with your yard and your neighborhood. If you’ve read about this stuff before, you won’t find any new insights, but it bears repeating. This is as good as any place to start for backyard ecol...

I've got a piece on benthic macroinvertebrates in this new fantastic journal: Jesus The Imagination . It's filled with essays, artwork, and poetry. I haven't finished reading it, but I'm impressed so far. Check it out--it's available on Amazon.

The classical (and Medieval) learning methodology of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric is still sound (not that I know it well enough to comment on it competently) but I'd like to offer a scaled-down version that I think can be worked in into anyone's life--child or not.  I propose that possessing a love of reading, an active imagination, and a love for and time spent outdoors will aid any student in any endeavor. It isn't enough to read, because the majority of Americans can do so.  The trouble is that skill is not exercised enough, is not cultivated, is not turned into a tawdry love affair.  So you can read--BFD!  The more important question is: Do You? Reading and reading regularly (of a variety of books, by the way) leads into and is supported by my next necessity: imagination.  This is a quality that everyone possesses, unlike literacy, but too many have one stunted by TV.  Now, TV in small quantities (how much is small?  Good question) will not stun...

I've been reading Don Quixote since February and while it started out entertaining enough, I have found, almost 600 pages into it, Se~nor Quixote's "mad" adventures tedious. Yet, I feel compelled to finish the damn thing. Why? I don't know. 1. It's canonical--the first novel to be written. 2. When I start a book, I have it in my head to finish it unless I absolutely hate the thing. In my 35 years of reading I can only remember, on one hand, of not completing a book that I started (as an adult). . . though there was that book about a donkey in the Grand Canyon that I picked up in Roosevelt Elementary's library and never finished waaaaaaaaaaay back in fourth grade. By the way, Mrs. Hastings, if you're still alive, I have so many fond memories of library time--Thank you for your service. Anyway, am I the only OCR (obessive-compulsive reader) who won't drop a book out of some sinful pride of duty?