XIV.

The reading journal is a compendium of what I’ve read and thoughts (sometimes very random thoughts) that came to mind while doing so. Not everyone will agree, and I’m not really giving suggestions as to anyone else’s reading list, unless they are a lot like me. Even I might change my mind down the road; being as variable as I am.  But at least people can see what’s going into my brain as well as what comes out.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
-Sir Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626)

what my ratings mean: 5—unmissable

Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand.
-Ezra Pound (1885 – 1972)

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.
-Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862), Walden: Reading, 1854

4—great stuff

When I step into this library, I cannot understand why I ever step out of it.
-Marie de Sevigne

3—worth reading

I have read your book and much like it.
-Moses Hadas (1900 – 1966)

2—mind candy

Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them.
-Charles Caleb Colton (1780 – 1832), Lacon, 1820

1—waste of time

Reading this book is like waiting for the first shoe to drop.
-Ralph Novak

0—unfinishable

I read part of it all the way through.
-Samuel Goldwyn (1882 – 1974)

The covers of this book are too far apart.
-Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914), The Devil’s Dictionary

This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.
-Dorothy Parker (1893 – 1967)