Monday, August 20, 2012

It's Monday, what are you reading?



i am currently reading:

Marcia Arrieta's poetry collection "triskelion, tiger moth, tangram, thyme". i looked for a stanza that communicates the content in the poet's own words. maybe this one:

sequesterd. islands. thinking.
building. dismantling. rebuilding the arch.
we continue the journey. watching as though.
the form. two forms. past/present. we search.

the second book looks like the formal counterpart to poetry: "Networks, Crowds, and Markets" is the suggested reading for a Coursera class "Social Network Analysis" i plan to take next month. the book is fascinating, especially with the direct references to our connected world (internet, e-mail, websites). and when typing the title and some of the chapter titles in a slightly different form, you see the connnection to the theme that also runs through Triskelion:

Networks. Crowds. Markets.
Reasoning. A Highly Connected World.
Paths and Connectivity.
Mechanisms Underlying.
Balance and Segregation.
What is a Game?


searching for the connections, for the pathway that leads beyond the layers. maybe that might sum it up, and also connect to the books i am reading since a while: Zen Mind; Beginner's Mind. i guess this will be my companion for the year, re-reading a page every day. some chapter titles, again put as poem:

Constancy. Transiency. Experience.
No Trace. No Dualism.
Breathing. Calmness.
Learn to study yourself.


there's more about it here: Zen Mind Radish Teachings.

also, i am reading some ebooks on the kindle, some pages in each of them each day - which seems a way to read that is both invited by the format of the books, and by the kindle which keeps the page open just at that point you leave it. i hadn't fully noticed this, but in one way, all of them could be woven into the theme of connections and questions, of searching and examining:

Sherry O'Keefe's "The Peppermint Bottle"
"Then something happens and the next thing I know I am on my knees, examining something minute, something telescopic:"


Daniela Elza's "Book of IT"
"it is looking for a needle
in a haystack

without knowing
what a needle looks like"



Fiona + Kaspalita's collection from "A River of Stones"
"Camomile tea in a coffee cup,
He asks me, "Raven,
What is time doing to us?"
- Raven Garland



(PS: all book are listed in my Goodreads page, with more details: "Dorothee is currently reading")

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this blog post is inspired by the blog series "It's Monday! What are you reading?" which is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. it's a blog initiative to share ones own reading and to see what others are currently reading. participating blogs are listed in this Linky Book List

What about you? What are your reads for this week?

6 comments:

RAnn said...

Enjoy your books.

Jim Murdoch said...

I am halfway through The Heart Broke In by James Meek which a nice lady at Canongate sent me unbidden to review. It’s 550 pages long and, as I am not a lover of long fiction, I am struggling. I can’t seem to take my editor’s hat off. I just a read four pages that I would have reduced to the simple sentence: “He nearly missed her.” It also has a large cast and I’m constantly having to go to my notes to see who’s related to who.

The other book I’ve just started is Dick Jones’s poetry collection Ancient Lights. Been a follower of Dick’s blog since November 2007 and so there’s not much here I’ve not encountered before in one draft or another but nice to have an actual book to hold. Can’t really sit and read poetry from cover to cover. So a bit here, a bit there.

Dorothee said...

hi Jim, thanks for your comment. Dick Jones, i thought i read some of his poetry but couldn't place it right away, and googled, to arrive at qarrtsiluni and Beth Adam's Phoenicia. http://www.phoeniciapublishing.com/ancient-lights.html

Beth is just reading my new book. small world.

The Brunette Librarian said...

I don't read a lot of poetry, but when I do its always enjoyable :)

Have a great reading week :) The Brunette Librarian's Blog

Dorothee said...

On reading poetry: I usually don't read it cover to cover either, but in pages - and since a while, read some poetry every morning. Which often makes me see poetry in unexpected places during the day (like in the Networks book).

The Relentless Reader said...

I'd like to read poetry. I've seen quite a few bloggers talking about it recently. It intimidates me though!