reading: into classics & across America without money

this blog post is inspired by the blog series "It's Monday! What are you reading?" which is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. more about that, at the bottom of this post.




My current reads are a mix of e-books and paperbacks, inspired by the season and the theme of travel:

A Christmas Carol
I finally read Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". Actually it was a recent read that made me curious for the original: in November, I read "Noel" - a graphic novel inspired by Dickens' tale. So now, the original, in the shape of a free e-book (here's the link). It felt like stepping back in time in a digital way. And reading it, it felt like I once saw a film version after all, some of the scenes seemed like deja-vu. The story itself and the moral is touching - this question that is more present at the ending season of the year: what will remain of our life in the end? What memory or imprint do we leave in this world, a warm or a cold one?

PS: i looked for a pdf-version, here's a neat one with illustrations: A Christmas Carol – online text version

The Kindness of Strangers
A chance find, and it was the subtitle that made me pick it up: "One man's journey from coast to coast. No promises. No guarantees. An no money." Could that work, to travel, and to mostly depend on the kindness of the people you meet while passing through? And what experiences come from it? The focus of Mike McIntyre's book is on the people he meets, and on the stories they share. A different kind of tavel book. One that puts a road realization into words: that the richest experiences in life mostly haven't much to do with money.

Travels with Charley, continued 
John Steinbeck's travelogue on exploring rural America: i started to read it on an island, and during the transit back home - and from there, it accompanied me through the week. This week I looked for a map of his trip, and found one, it's from the National Steinbeck Centre:

photo by Jill Clardy (Flickr)

The photo belongs to a photo file that also includes a photo of Steinbeck's camper, the "Rocinante". The book ends on a reflective note that also is about the nature of journeys themselves: "Who has not known a journey to be over and dead before the traveler returns? The reverse is also true: many a trip continues long after movement in time and space has ceased." 

*

Journeys... into Words
One of the book joys of this week was: browsing books and planning the starting reads for the 2013 reading challenges. The first books are on the way now.. January will bring: A Journey From India (India/America) + The Elegance of the Hedgehog (France). Looking forward.

More about the Reading Challenges, here: reading challenges 2013 & sorting books by continents & finding books by place ... and the direct link to the challenge i host in 2013 is:

7 Continents, 7 Billion People, 7 Books (Link)
The idea of this reading challenge is to explore the world by books from different continents and countries, and by visiting various world lists while planning the reads, to encounter the one or other unknown angle and fact about our world.

*****

It's Monday! What are you reading? This blog post is inspired by the blog series "It's Monday! What are you reading?" which is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. participating blogs are listed in this Linky Book List

Previous reading blog entries are collected here: bookshelf: currently  reading... there also is a visual bookshelf, just click it to get there:

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")

**

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?