Predictability

As I look through old newspapers for my research job, sometimes I find interesting and odd pieces from the past.
Take, for instance, this editorial cartoon from the 1952 St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

With all the various shapes and sizes of the cars we see today, this gives a funny look at what it was like so early on in car history.  Well, at least in Ford's history. ;)

At any rate, I recommend you look through your local newspaper's archives, if they are available.  They provide fascinating insight to life at any given point in history as far back as the newspaper goes.

God Bless!

A Rather Gray View

Good evening, everyone.
I know that I have been very irregular in my posting.  I decided to post tonight before the craziness of this work week begins.  I simply do not have the time during the week.  If I do, I'm usually catching up on my reading.

http://prepfection.tumblr.com/post/25399547156/findyourlife-the-books-of-our-lives

Which leads me to my first topic.
I have just finished re-reading, "The Scarlet Pimpernel" for only the second time.  Shameful, I know.  I forgot just how wonderfully romantic that book is.  The way that Marguerite and Sir Percy are so far apart in the beginning of the book reminds me so much of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy's relationship for a good part of "Pride and Prejudice." (Which reminds me, I really need to re-read that book, too.)

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/lady+blakeney

Anyway, now I'm reading a biography of Voltaire and his relationship with Emilie du Chatelet.  It's an interesting book, although one can learn too much about historical figures.  One piece that I found intriguing was the fact that actresses in the 18th century were considered outcasts.  I realized then that if Sir Percy were a real person/aristocrat, then there would have been no way that he would have married Marguerite St. Just, an actress.  It would have been (gasp!) beneath him.  You can conjecture for yourself then that if Sir Percy was a real person that he would have married her for love and would have foregone all rules of class and aristocracy or would not have married her at all.  Personally (and I think I speak for all die-hard TSP fans) that he would have been the former, not the latter.
(I'm probably going to be slammed for this.;)Moving on.
I bought two books at Barnes and Noble today: "To Kill A Mockingbird" and "North and South."  The first one is more or less stocking up for future reference, but the second one is definitely for enjoyment.  Ever since I watched the 2004 miniseries version of "North and South," I have been wanting very badly to read the book.  I mean, who doesn't want to read about John Thorton? ;)

http://media-cache-ec0.pinterest.com/upload/223772675205025602_XFPYApAJ.jpg

I found a beautiful gray a-line skirt at JC Penney's today as well.  It is almost identical to a skirt my mom bought for me at Cato two and a half years ago for my Confirmation.

www.jcpenny.com

 I have grown to love it as a must-have in my daily wardrobe.  Gray is a great color that works for every season. 

I have also decided to purchase this lovely gray pea coat from Victorian Trading Company.  I love the lower half of the sleeves.  So puffy and whimsical. :)  I suppose wearing color gray is something that Jane Eyre and I have in common. ;)

Last but not least, a song by The Piano Guys, my new favorite music group.  This one just sound like summer, doesn't it? :)

Somewhere Over the Rainbow/Simple Gifts

P.S.  I just realized how much gray there is in the post.  Unintended, I assure you. 

How College Ruined My Ability to Read

For the first nineteen years of my life, I read and enjoyed reading.
Now that I have entered college, however, that enjoyment has ended.
College has ruined the way I read.

Let me explain:
When one is taking five three-hour classes, it is next to impossible to have any reading time between class, homework, and work.  It is extremely difficult to read continually, because the time allotted for reading is often hurried and short.  One cannot remember enough of the previously read pages to continue reading.  This is because there have been a million other things passing in and out of one's head since the last time the book was picked up.

 I'm not just talking about reading for enjoyment.  One would think that textbooks are there to be read, but in my limited experience, this is sometimes hardly necessary at all.  I ask you, why have the textbooks, if one does not have to read them?
If one does read the readings for class, it is often in a hurried and harried manner, and leads to the necessity of taking notes.
This lead me to my next grievance.


Taking notes is a recent problem I have developed.  I have borrowed several history books from the university library to prepare for the fall semester.  In order to remember everything, it has been suggested to me that I should take notes as I read.

This, my friends, is the most devastating problem of what college has done to me.

I can no longer just read a book.  No.  I must now learn something from it.  Gone are the days of  passive reading, of reading for no purpose at all.  Gone are the days of happily and foolishly reading simply for its own sake.  Gone are the days of reading, "Little House on the Prairie" series simply "for fun.   Now I must figure out the characters' motives, the author's thesis, and why in the world Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in the first place.

I must (sob!) actively read.

This summer, I have joined a study group for "The Fellowship of the Ring," the first book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  There too are we encouraged to think outside the box, to understand in some small part what the author might be conveying to us, and to (gasp!) take notes.

Most intolerable.


But lest my friends of the Fellowship think I do not like them or the purpose of our study, let me say this:

I would not have it any other way. 
I love diving deeper into books.  I can no longer just read them.  I want to understand why characters act the way they do, what the setting of the story is, and what the author is trying to tell us.  For if one person thought it was worthwhile to write an entire book on a single subject, it is worthwhile for us readers to delve a bit deeper into it.
 

To actively read is to take part in any book.
This is one of the great lessons that college has taught me.  Reading for class does not always have to be a drag, but neither does the book I read last week need to be forgotten.
Read to learn.


"I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once."  ~C.S. Lewis