It's Monday, what are you reading? - from Tyrol to Poetry to Comics

monday and i'm back from a weekend in the mountains of North Tyrol / Austria. the weather was mixed, but it was good just to be there, in this different air, with those different views.

Continuing Reads
usually when i go on a trip, short or long, i try to find books that connect to the place, but this time, it was a bit different - i still have the books i am reading in steps, some of them poetry collections, some reflective books (more here). one spoke to me especially, and i picked up one of the poems to go with a road image from the trip:


(a larger version is online in my photo blog: metaphor the journey)

poetry starting point
in the last monday roundup, a blogger noted in response to the poetry books i linked: "I'd like to read poetry. I've seen quite a few bloggers talking about it recently. It intimidates me though!"

i tried to think of a good starting point, and now came across one: In September, the literary course "Modern & Contemporary American Poetry" by Al Filreis at Penn State will start at Coursera. here's more: iterary courses online: Modern & Contemporary American Poetry + Fantasy & Science Fiction

Conversations with S. Teri O'Type
an extra book i had with me: just before leaving, fellow author Christopher Allen sent me an early reader e-version of his upcoming book "Conversations with S. Teri O'Type". here's a sneak peak, and there will be more about the book in this blog in September. and there's a connection in place after all: author Christopher Allen is just back from a trip to South Tryol, here some pictures from the south side. ..and seeing it like that, i was travelling with friends from distant places in Tyrol


& to come: reading comics in public
now, for an evening jogg, and then to figure out a very different question: what comic to pick tomorrow for the global "Read Comics in Public Day" ... :)

will report back from that next monday.

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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 reading this week?

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?