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  • The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life by Steve Leveen

    Steve Leveen’s The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life sort of belongs in the goofy, slight, self-help category of books. But because he did actually talk to a wide range of avid readers, his summary of reading advice includes a few helpful ideas that are new to me (as well as some already familiar ones).

    The first (and biggest) new idea is creating a list of candidates for reading, grouped under headings, with notes about when and why they were added. Leveen suggests there are too many books to read and that you should pay attention to what your interests are and seek to find the best books that reflect your interests. (He’s also an advocate for abandoning books that just aren’t doing it for you.) He links this suggestion to keeping a list of the books you’ve read (obviously not a new idea for me).

    The obvious categories for my list of candidates included Time Travel, Speculative Fiction, Biography, Natural History, Horticulture, Botany, and Taxonomy.

    Leveen suggests buying books and shelving them by the same categories so they are ready to hand when you’re looking for something to read. After he’s read books, he puts them on an intermediate shelf where he can easily pick them up to review what he learned or noted from each book before moving them into what he calls his “Living Library.”

    In order to get more from reading, he suggests surveying the book before beginning to read, writing in the margins (especially questions to yourself), and reviewing the book at increasing intervals after you finish.

    He includes chapters on audio books and book groups.

    All in all, a worthwhile read.

  • Discovering Your Personality Type

    Discovering Your Personality Type by Don Richard Russo and Russ Hudson was my capitulation to finding out about the Enneagram. Several friends rave about it, and my housemate has been to several training institutes. So I caved. Interesting book, a bit rah-rah and “buy our books” for my taste, but having taken their instrument and looking at my office through the Enneagram lens, it looks useful.

    Here’s their website: Enneagram Institute: Enneagram Testing & Training.

    And if you’re curious: active five with a four wing.

  • Gay marriage anniversary

    Yesterday was the first anniversary of legal same-sex marriages in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Unitarian Univeraslist Association had a lovely reception for the plaintiff couples in the legal suit that brought about the equalization of marriage. Six of the seven couples were able to attend, as well as Mary Bonauto, the lawyer who represented them, and staff and volunteers from Mass Equality and Freedom to Marry, two civil rights groups here in Boston. Yummy cake, yummy cheese, and bubbly champagne–all smack dab in the middle of a work afternoon–then we trouped out to Boston Common for a photo op with the State House in the background.

    For a more political and strategic take on the day, I liked what AndrewSullivan had to say:

    Above all, we have changed consciousness. In civil rights movements, that’s what matters and that’s what endures. People forget that two decades ago, homosexuality meant simply sex for most Americans–and unsavory sex at that. Or it meant counter-cultural revolution. Or left-wing victim politics. By fighting the marriage fight, we changed the terms of that debate. We co-opted the language of our enemies–the language of family, love, responsibility, commitment. We did this not simply because it helps us win over the middle of American politics. But because it’s actually reflective of the reality of many of our lives.

  • The Whole Hog by Lyall Watson

    I was concerned that The Whole Hog: Exploring the Extraordinary Potential of Pigs, by Lyall Watson, might potentially put me off my pork products, but it didn’t quite manage that. It did, however, come close. Watson describes several personal relationships with pigs–none of which happen to be your garden-variety meat hog, which is why I suspect I got away with my dietary sensibilities relatively intact. (I do, however, struggle with weaning myself from animal products produced by industrial agriculture.)

  • Many Dimensions by Charles Williams

    I read Many Dimensions by Charles Williams because of a review at Random Thoughts and Nonsense. Unfortunately, I had several books arrive from the library as well as heavy work-related reading, so I got bogged-down about 3/4 of the way through and set it aside. Last night I finally just skimmed through the last of it.

    The Eerdmans edition I got from the library has on the jacket: “Williams believed intensely in the impingement of the supernatural world, and he excelled in descriptions of experiences such as many people have had only once or twice in their lives.” Williams died in 1945 at the age of 59, and this book was first published in 1931. I thought it by turns quaint, proto-new-agey, coy, pious (in the bad sense), and mumbo-jumbo. But maybe I’m in a bad mood (I did, after all, go to the trouble of at least skimming to the end). For a much more sympathetic reflection, go on over to Random Thoughts and Nonsense.

  • Orson Scott Card goes too far again

    As if his opinions on homosexuality aren’t offensive enough, now Orson Scott Card is a media critic in Strange New World: No ‘Star Trek’:

    So they’ve gone and killed “Star Trek.” And it’s about time.

  • National Day of Prayer and Yom Hashoah

    The United States Congress established the national day of prayer in 1952, and in 1988 its date was set as the first Thursday in May. This year’s proclamation states:

    The Congress by Public Law 100–307, as amended, has called on our
    citizens to reaffirm the role of prayer in our society and to honor the
    freedom of religion by recognizing annually a “National Day of Prayer.”

    NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States
    of America, do hereby proclaim May 5, 2005, as a National Day of
    Prayer.  I ask the citizens of our Nation to give thanks, each
    according to his or her own faith, for the liberty and blessings we
    have received and for God’s continued guidance and protection.

    (I’m not going to comment in this post on the government’s intrusion into religion, or the highly gendered language for God, or the assumption that Americans all have faith, or that their faith involves a God or the practice of prayer, or any of a number of things with which I might take issue. I do believe in God and in prayer–but don’t make assumptions about what those words mean.)

    I do give thanks for the liberty and blessings I’ve received, and I do pray for guidance and protection for the United States. I give thanks for:

    • the right to get married in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
    • the right to practice my religion (albeit, as I noted above, with untoward government intrusion)
    • the right to vote
    • the material plenty in which I live (while tempered with the knowledge that this plenty is based upon inequity and domination)

    I pray for guidance for our country:

    • that my fellow citizens and our government will become free of intolerance and dependence on violence to solve problems
    • that George Bush (for better or worse, our president) will be open to wisdom and compassion
    • that judges at all levels of government will continue to be free of legislative and executive control

    But none of this is what these folks mean when they take up the official banner of the National Day of Prayer. No, what they mean isn’t for everyone–it’s not even for all Christians. It’s only for those who subscribe to the Lausanne Covenant, an evangelical Christian statement. Here’s how they put it:

    Is the NDP exclusively a Christian event?
    No. This
    government-proclaimed day is offered to all Americans, regardless of
    religion, to celebrate their faith through prayer. However, the efforts
    of the NDP Task Force are executed specifically in accordance with its
    Judeo-Christian beliefs.

    The chairman [sic] is Shirley Dobson:

    Who is behind the NDP Task Force?
    The Chairman is
    Mrs. Shirley Dobson, who has held the position since 1991. Mrs. Dobson
    volunteers her time and does not receive a salary. The NDP Task Force
    consists of a full-time staff and a network of thousands of grassroots
    volunteers nationwide. Prior to Mrs. Dobson’s involvement, the Task
    Force was led by Mrs. Vonette Bright, wife of former Campus Crusade for
    Christ president and founder Bill Bright.

    Is the Task Force affiliated with Focus on the Family?
    No.
    Though Mrs. Dobson is married to Focus on the Family board chairman and
    founder Dr. James Dobson, the NDP Task Force is a separate
    organization. It is housed in the Focus on the Family headquarters for
    convenience, so long as Mrs. Dobson remains the Chairman. Its business
    affairs are separate and Focus on the Family is compensated for
    services rendered. However, between 1990 and 1993, Focus on the Family
    did provide grants in support of the NDP Task Force. Since then, the
    Task Force has been completely self-supported.

    I’ve been distubed by the National Day of Prayer organization’s exclusive sectarianism for some time and just wanted to get it off my chest.

    Today is also the 27th of Nissan, Yom Hashoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day. Now there’s something to pray about.

  • World Press Freedom Day

    Today is World Press Freedom Day.

    Imagine the unthinkable: Having to pay with your life for an article you wrote, a photo you took. Because it offended someone, because it touched a sensitive subject.

  • Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi

    Ursula Hegi’s Stones from the River was our last book group read. A superficial plot description (psychic German dwarf growing up between the wars) didn’t have me panting to read it. But after just a few pages, I was totally sucked in. I have a few complaints about technique, but they pale beside the characterization and the questions Hegi raises about difference, secrets, power, storytelling, and resistance.

  • The Unusually Useful Web Book by June Cohen

    What do you know? The Unusually Useful Web Book: Everything We’ve Learned about Why Sites Succeed! by June Cohen IS unusually useful. It’s been my nearly constant reading for several weeks, prompting some very productive activities at work as we plan a revamped web magazine.