Category Archives: C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis, Church History Novels, home improvements, miscellaneous, Politics, reading, The Teachings, Writing

A Whacky Week to Start 2021

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That sounds too flippant, to call last week a “whacky” week. It was an awful week as far as our nation goes. For me in my personal life, “whacky” is an apt description.

Not that anything went wrong, at least not terribly wrong. The worst that happened to me was a dead battery. I drove to a haircut appointment on Friday, the first haircut I had since May. I took the Green Monster, our old minivan. It’s been a little hard to start and I thought it might be that the battery was old. But it started and I drove it the 3/4 miles to the beauty shop. Got my haircut, came out, and it wouldn’t start. So I walked home and let it sit overnight.

I considered having my neighbor drive me up there and jump start me then drive it to the Dodge dealership 4 miles north, but on Saturday? I decided instead to call AAA. They now have a battery service. I requested that, and they came so fast I barely had time to walk up there to meet them. Fifteen minutes and some money later and I was up and running. That battery was six or seven years old, so I was on borrowed time with it. And, that service didn’t cost a whole lot more than going to Wal-Mart, buying a battery, and putting it in myself.

During the week I actually got back to significant work on my novel, The Teachings. Over Tuesday through Friday I added over 5,000 words to it. I haven’t had that kind of writing production in a long time. I left it on Friday with the next scene clearly in my mind, hoping to add another two to three thousand words over the weekend. But instead I added…nothing. Other tasks consumed my time.

On Saturday, in addition to taking care of the van, I did maintenance around the house. The shower door handle needed attention, and was easily fixed. I tried to glue down some old wallpaper that is coming loose but it wouldn’t stick, even with gorilla glue. A window handle needed put back in place, and I was able to find screws that reasonably matched and got that done. While at it I went around the house and checked the other window handles, tightening a few. I also did some more straightening/arranging of my miscellaneous hardware, and identified some more I can sell.

We continue with decluttering, going through old Christmas cards and letters received over a 28 year period. Few are worth saving. Why we saved them I don’t know. But that is slowly being cleared out. I keep getting some inquiries about items I have listed for sale on FB Marketplace. Sold some books on Thursday, but a freak snowstorm that day kept two other scheduled buyers away or I might have sold more.

My reading was progressing well early in the week. I read ten or more pages a day in C.S. Lewis’s letters, with great enjoyment. But I read less over the weekend, my concentration waning. Our evening reading is in a Philip Yancey book, and we make good progress in that. We lost reading time two days as I had evening Zoom meetings on church-related tasks.

One of those tasks is our church’s 100th anniversary committee. I was asked if I would write a book to be distributed as part of the celebration, which is in October. That may seem like a lot of time, but it’s not. Thursday evening I went up to the church to retrieve the archives. Saturday I went through about 5 to 10% of them. It’s going to be a huge task. I have a timeline already started, though with much more needed. I probably need to spend some time every day on this, and will do some today.

My weight and blood sugars were a little whacky last week. My eating was fairly good and I lost some weight and had good blood sugars, but the blood sugars didn’t track as well to my eating and exercise as I thought they would; not sure why.

I could go on. Prepared on Saturday for and taught adult Life Group yesterday. Did a little genealogy research. And, as you would expect, made a few Facebook posts or comments on Wednesday, now estranged from a family member over it. This too shall pass. I will post about that, maybe in my next post of possibly not until next week. While I’m hoping the madness (yes, I consider it madness) has stopped, I’m hearing things that concern me that it hasn’t. More on that later.

So, here it is another week, the 2nd of 2021. Normal tasks are before me. God is on the throne. I will continue to serve Him, regardless of what of what swirls around me.

ancient letters, C.S. Lewis, family, holidays

Yes, Thanksgiving Was Quiet

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It was just me and the missus this year. Leftovers from the Thanksgiving dinner we had last week with our son, reading, walking, and lots of phone calls.

I’m not a big fan of talking on the phone, so I can’t say that was pleasant for me. Strange, after all the years in the workforce, dealing with clients, contractors, and colleagues, that I should dislike the phone, but I do. Maybe 44 years of engineering work and the required phone time means I used up my lifetime store of phone time.

I can’t say that I feel like I got much done. I was a couple of days behind on my devotional readings, and I caught up. I did my usual morning stock market accounting even though the market was closed. That saved me from having to do it Friday before the market opens for a half-day session. I had a couple of messages of people wanting to buy stuff off my Facebook Marketplace listings. I responded, started to gather those things, they decided it could wait until Friday. I read eight pages in C.S. Lewis’ letters. I had hoped for 10 pages, so was a little short.

I walked a total of 2.67 miles, according to my app. I went out, came back to find Lynda walking toward me, so we went out again. I think it was a little over 1/2 miles together. A beautiful day in the mid-60s couldn’t be passed by. As I said above, supper was leftovers, a turkey casserole I had made a week ago, the last of the butternut squash, cranberry sauce, and then just snacking.

In the evening I read aloud from the current issue of the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries magazine that we get, finishing it. That paves the way for us to start a new book today. I read a couple of Thomas Carlyle’s letters from 1832, finding them enjoyable as always.

The main task I did, I guess, was formatting a document in MS Word. I won’t say what it was. It’s a bunch of copyrighted items that I downloaded concerning an author I study. I will read it some day; actually started on that some years ago. Now the document is set up in printable form, should I decide to do that. For some reason, formatting documents is a task I find enjoyable. So I worked on that off and on beginning around noon, and finished it around 9:30 pm. Over 200 pages. Done, ready for whatever I want to do with it next.

So here it’s Friday morning. I was up at 6:15 a.m. and have already got stuff done. I’ll head upstairs when I finish this to get my second cup of coffee. Then I’ll see all that I must do and want to do today. Work, walk, and read are my main courses, with a side of eating and conversation. Looking forward to the day.

C.S. Lewis, family, home improvements, memories, miscellaneous

Footprints

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I hope there will be some relics of us left when we have settled that question of souteraines.

This book will take me several years to get through at the slow rate I’m reading it. I wonder if I’ll ever get to Vol. 2.

As my wife and are in the process of de-cluttering, we find a lot of things I can only describe as footprints: printed matter, souvenirs, old things we used to use but don’t any more. We are weeding through these. So far I’ve listed a number of things on Facebook Marketplace and some have sold. Not many, but some. And the amounts earned thereby are starting to add up.

I’m determined not to leave the mess for our children that our parents did for us. Two houses to clean out, plus all my mother-in-law’s stuff stuffed into our basement storeroom when she left her house for an apartment and more coming with each of her next moves. And this is after having multiple estate sales and yard sales in the past.

This drill set hung in the basement above Dad’s workbench. I could have sold it for more if it was all there, but the drill itself is missing as well as other parts.

My brother and I divided the tools and hardware from Dad’s basement. I took my share and stuffed them in our garage at our last house and faithfully moved them to our current, larger house and found space for them in the garage. A few—very few—I used. Most sat in cardboard boxes and tool boxes for the last 23 years, as they had at Dad’s for three or four decades before that. Some of those are gone. Some others will be picked up in 42 minutes [I write this on Sunday afternoon.]

When this process is over, a process that will take several years, I don’t know what we’ll have left. At some point we will have to consider our own stuff and decide what to do with it. But for now it’s enough to be dealing with our parent’s stuff. Our son is visiting us now. Before he came I told him to not expect much progress. I said what we had done so far was like cutting a millimeter off a 2-lbs. chunk of cheddar cheese. But progress is progress, even if it’s by millimeters instead of yards.

All of which is making me think of footprints, the footprints we leave in this world. Of course, as a genealogist, I’m thrilled when I find a footprint of an ancestor. It helps me to know a little about their life. The fact that so-and-so took someone to court in 1675 and won matters. Yet, I’m kind of glad I’m not looking at five pages of ancient court documents and trying to decide: “Do I keep this or not?” Footprints are good; a trampled wheat field is not. Hopefully the footprints that now adorn our house will, at such time as we leave this world, be just enough to be pleasing to our heirs, not overwhelming as we are now.

This box of odd clamps, files, and other tools came from Dad’s house in the box you see. I never used any of them.

The quote that starts this post I found in a letter C.S. Lewis wrote to his good friend Arthur Greaves on 10 November 1941. I’m slowly reading through Lewis’ letters. Volume 1 is 1024 pages of 10 point font. I assume Volumes 2 (which I also have) and 3 (which I do not have) are about the same. By “relics” I believe Lewis means the same as “footprints”. He hoped that he would make an impact on the world and that those who came after him would know who he was.

The word “souterrains” was a new one on me. Wikipedia defines it thusly:

Souterrain is a name given by archaeologists to a type of underground structure associated mainly with the European Atlantic Iron Age. These structures appear to have been brought northwards from Gaul during the late Iron Age. Regional names include earth houses, fogous and Pictish houses.

So it’s an archeological relic—a footprint of people long gone, something that tells us a little about how they lived. Lewis is saying that, just as these souterrains survived for a couple of millennia, so would his influence survive. He wrote that as a 16-year-old school boy.

At the moment, I think the biggest legacy I could leave my kids is to not leave a mess behind for them to have to deal with. Oh, there will be a few things. We don’t leave earth with absolutely nothing in our possession just prior. But I know it will be better than the three messes we received.

book reviews, C.S. Lewis

Book Review: Essays Presented to Charles Williams

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This will become a part of my permanent library, an affectation that I could someday be an academic.

With C.S. Lewis being on of my favorite authors, I never pass up an opportunity to add something he’s written to my library. Some time ago I found a paperback titled Essays Presented to Charles Williams, edited by C.S. Lewis, in a used book store. Needless to say I snatched it up. Having within the last year finally finished Mere Christianity after several previous failed attempts, I went to the bookshelf in the storeroom, hoping I would easily find this 145 page volume there, and sure enough it was right where I thought I remembered it to be.

The premise of the book was to honor Charles Williams, a member of the Oxford Inklings, the author critique group formed by Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. While Lewis and Tolkien were academics at Oxford, some others in the group weren’t. Lewis read one of Williams’ novels and liked it so much he wrote to him. At the same time, Williams, in his duties at the Oxford University Press, had just read Lewis’ The Allegory of Love, loved it, and was ready to write to Lewis. Mutual admiration of the other’s writings was the start of this friendship.

Lewis invited Williams to come to Oxford from London and visit the Inklings. He did so, and visited on occasion from 1936 to 1939. The outbreak of World War 2 caused the Oxford Press to temporary relocate from London to Oxford, at which time Williams became a regular member of the Inklings.

In 1945, as the war was ending, Lewis wanted to honor his friend and talked about putting a book of essays together, a typical way of doing honor in the literary world of that time. Alas, Williams died suddenly in 1945 before the project really started. Lewis persisted, however, and the book came together and was published in 1948. My paperback was the 4th printing, published in 1977.

Those contributing essays were Dorothy Sayers, Tolkien, Lewis, Owen Barfield, Gervase Mathew, and Lewis’ brother Warren. All except Sayers were part of the Inklings (well, Barfield not so much as he was based in London, but he was there occasionally and was a good friend of all of them).

The essays were literary in nature. Sayers’ “…And Telling you a Story”, Tolkien’s “On Fairy-Stories”, and Lewis’ “On Stories” are obviously about literature, specifically on story-telling. Barfield’s “Poetic Diction and Legal Fiction” fits in that category. Gervase’s “Marriage and Amour Courtois…” fits as well. Warren Lewis’ “The Galleys of France” doesn’t quite fit in with the others. It’s about what he learned from his research into 16th and 17th Century France, which was the topic of his writings.

Each of the essays I found to be a bit tedious, Warren and C.S. Lewis’ the least so, Tolkien’s the most (also the longest). In fact, I couldn’t get through Tolkien’s essay. I struggled with it, reading a few pages a day, reading slowly, trying to capture what Tolkien wanted to communicate. Alas, I finally gave up and skipped the last ten pages of 52-page essay and went on to the others. This is true of all of Tolkien’s writings for me. I have never completed reading The Lord Of The Rings due to how difficult I find it. I have The Sillmarillion waiting for me to get to, but I’m not excited about it.

Excited about getting to a book. That was my feeling when this finally popped to the top of my “reading pile”. It didn’t fulfill my expectations. Perhaps it’s because of the distance in time and space between 1948 England and 2019 United States. Perhaps it’s the academic nature of the essays. Perhaps it’s just that these authors knew what their friend would like and wrote in that way. Whatever it was, the book disappointed to some extent.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad I bought the book, glad I read it, and will gladly give it a place in my permanent library. But, was this the best use of my valuable reading time? Perhaps not. Still, I can see myself going back to this a decade hence, re-reading it from cover to cover, somehow drawing meaning from Tolkien’s essay and finishing it, gaining more insight from the others on a second read. Maybe in those ten years I’ll make another post and you’ll get to read all about it.

book reviews, C.S. Lewis

Book Review: Mere Christianity

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This will go in my permanent C.S. Lewis collection which, unfortunately, is far from complete.

Well, I finally did it: got through Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. It only took me 48 years to do it. That’s a bit of an exaggeration. I first learned of the book when several of my friends were reading and speaking well of it during our sophomore year in college. I was a nominal Christian at the time and had never heard of C.S. Lewis, the whole Narnia thing having passed me by in the 1950s. I marked this as a book I should read.

Over the years, beginning in 1975 when I read The Screwtape Letters, I came to know Lewis better and better. Mere Christianity eluded me, however, or I avoided it. Then my co-teacher of our adult Sunday school class thought this might be a good book to have a lesson series on. I picked up a copy and started reading it. I bogged down a couple of chapters in, and set it aside.

A couple of months ago I asked if my co-teacher had a biography of Lewis I had loaned him. He returned it along with a copy of Mere Christianity, saying he was pretty sure I had loaned that to him as well. I couldn’t find a copy in my house, so I accepted it as my own.

I read it in 15 sittings in October and early November. I didn’t find it all that hard to read, and wondered why I bogged down on previous readings. Lewis has a different way of looking at things and describing them in non-church language.

The contents of this book were adapted from radio broadcasts Lewis made during World War 2. Lewis went on the BBC to provide information and comfort for a war-weary land. In the Preface to this book, he explained his purpose.

…I have thought the best…service I could do for my unbelieving neighbors was to explain and defend the belief that has  been common to nearly all Christians at all times.

He also explained what wasn’t his purpose.

…I offer no help to anyone who is hesitating between two Christian ‘denominations’. You will not learn from me whether you ought to become an Anglican, a Methodist, a Presbyterian, or a Roman Catholic. This omission is intentional.

Why did Lewis decide to make his broadcasts in this manner?

…the questions which divide Christians from one another often involve points of high Theology or even ecclesiastical history…

And Lewis achieved this in the book. He talked about “mere” Christianity, or, perhaps another way to understand it is Christianity stripped of everything that divides us. leaving only what unites us. The examples of this in the book are many, and I’ll not give them here.

Lewis is considered an intellectual, which was probably the reason I delayed so long to read this, thinking it would be difficult to understand. It really wasn’t. The first few chapters deal with moral codes that are common to all cultures. Where do they come from? Lewis concluded that the universality of these codes was evidence that they came from God, an important discovery on his road first to theism then to Christianity.

If you haven’t read this, I urge you to do so. It was excellent, and will help any Christian better understand the faith.

For this book, there’s no question that this will become part of my permanent library. I don’t think I’ll reread it immediately, but will someday.

book reviews, C.S. Lewis, critique group

Book Review: The Oxford Inklings – revisited

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Read it in 2014-15 and gave it 5 stars; re-read it in 2019 and haven’t changed my mind.

Four years ago I read The Oxford Inklings and posted a review of it. I put this book on the shelf and forgot about it. Forgot that I even had read it, though in the back of my mind I knew I had that book somewhere in my library.

Lately, with my interest in C.S. Lewis enhanced—not that I ever lot interest in him, but from time to time it bubbles to the top of my thoughts and I have to read a book by or about him. Well, after having trouble a while back trying to find something from a Lewis book to go into Acts Of Faith, I realized I needed to consolidate my Lewis books into one place. As I was doing that, almost accidentally I saw The Oxford Inklings hiding in a place I never would have expected it. I looked at it and couldn’t tell if it had ever been read. So I took it up to the sun room and decided I would read it right away.

I remembered a story late in the book, or thought I did. If I get to that part and that story is in there I would know I had indeed read this. Rather than look ahead and try to find that, I decided to just read it straight through and wait until I came.

As I read the book, it seemed new to me. Although I thought I had read it before, reading it now I felt like it was a new book. Had I read it or not? I found it gave me good information. I was about to say no, I hadn’t read it before. As I got close to the end, it began to feel familiar.

At last I came to the period that described Lewis’ declining health, and there was the scene I remembered. Yes, I had read it. Obviously I hadn’t retained it as much as I should have.

I see I gave the book 5 stars before. I stand by that. It does a good job of describing the Inklings and how the group revolved around Lewis more than the others. Members came and went. The three with the most time in the group were Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Lewis’ brother Warren. Others were there for a few years, or for a longer time but not attending each time they met. A few didn’t write and were there just to critique.

We aren’t the Inklings yet, but we are helping each other improve and move our writing forward.

Their goal was to make their writing better. They read works and received criticism on the spot. Back then easy means of printing and copying weren’t available, so their criticism was through listening and commenting. How different it is now. Our writing group, Scribblers and Scribes of Bella Vista, has the advantage of receiving works ahead of time and taking time to read and make comments in writing. We also read and comment at our monthly meetings (soon to be twice a month), but typically have copies of what others are reading.

But, I must go back to the book and close. If you’re interested in C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, their books, their circles, how writers go about their business, this is an excellent read. I highly recommend it—again.

Bible study, C.S. Lewis, home improvements, Writing

A Blustery, Productive Day

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Sleet has turned to snow. Not much accumulation expected.

Hello winter, on Veterans Day. At midnight we were 50 degrees. We woke up to 39 degrees and falling. Right now it’s 25. The wind is howling and snow is falling. If it were continuous snow and heavier this would be a blizzard. That’s okay by me. I’ve nowhere to go tonight, no reason to leave the house except for getting something I left in the van last night.

I’ve been productive today. I was up at 6:45 a.m. Before long I was in The Dungeon with coffee. For about two hours I split my time between working on my book in progress and stock trading. Did some general reading as well. I put in four options trades, all rolling out existing positions. Three of the four filled at my limit. I touched-up and expanded another chapter in the Leader’s Guide for Acts Of Faith. That’s only three of 17 chapters that have the expanded information in the Leader’s Guide, but at least it’s a start. I fear, if I continue along this path, I’ll never get it done. There’s always something more I can add.

The cardinal was much prettier from my view. A downy woodpecker is at that feeder now, but I don’t think I’ll be able to capture him.

After breakfast around 9, with a little sleet coming down, the wind whipping the trees, and leaves rapidly leaving their branches, I broke with my routine and came out to the sunroom. While I have two books I’m currently reading for research, I decided to start a new one for pleasure. It’s a book of essays edited by C.S. Lewis. Only one of the essays is by him. One is by Tolkien, the others by other of their friends. I’m going to enjoy this, I think, if I understand it. I managed to get through the 10 page Preface today.

Inside around 10:30, I did a little work to use existing materials to “build-in” the microwave over the oven. This has been open for a while, the wife didn’t like it, but trying to get a suitable build-in kit to fit a 30+ year old opening is difficult. I managed to get the old kit to work, and it looks presentable if not perfect. They I began putting furniture back in place in the living room. It had all been moved last week for carpet shampooing. I finished the cleaning on Saturday, put some furniture back yesterday, and finished the living room today. I hope to get three heavy pieces back in place in the entryway, and that pre-Thanksgiving company work will be done.

Then I began a task for my old company, an engineering review of a submittal for a project in the City of Centerton. I spent over two hours on that, taking a detailed look at the drawings and assembling my comments. I still have the drainage report to review, which I will do either tonight or tomorrow. This works keeps me in coffee money.

Coffee, books, a computer on my lap, snow and wind outside, cool temperatures inside. What more do I need right now?

Speaking of which, after retrieving that item from the van (and foolishly checking the mailbox, forgetting this is a mail holiday), I heated some coffee and came once again to the sun room. The sleet has turned to snow—not much snow, just enough to make it feel like winter. This is an early snow for us, although last year we got our first snow on November 13th or 14th, so about the same.

For the first time I’ve taken my computer to the sun room and am typing this post there. In front of me is the deck, snow and leaves showing, birds coming to the feeders. To my rights I see the tops of pin oaks being whipped by the wind. To my left is my reading table piled with too many books, also with my coffee. The temperature out here is 59 to 60 degrees; just enough to keep the plants comfortable, and about where I like it.

A big gust just blew snow off the roof in a very picturesque way. I need to wrap up this post, get some photos loaded, then get to my research reading. I’ll have over an hour and a half for that before supper. Unless I decide to make that cauliflower/sweet potato dish. I’m thinking about that.

Bible study, C.S. Lewis, poetry

Late In The Day

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This morning, when I should have been writing a blog post, I worked on a financial spreadsheet. Now in my 11th month of retirement, knowing what our financial condition is at present, I had never made any projections into the future. This morning, in about an hour, I was able to build a nice spreadsheet to make those projections. It’s not done yet, but it’s close. I need to enhance the formatting, and maybe add another bell or whistle or two, but I’m pleased with the progress I made. It was long overdue.

Now it’s evening. I had a busy Monday with taking the wife to a doctor appointment, doing a couple of errands while she was busy. At home I changed out our modem, which was two generations old. I walked to the post office and mailed a copy of Acts Of Faith to a former pastor.

After that I read, finishing C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. I’ll be writing a book review of it soon. I did a little research for teaching AOF, and have somewhat relaxed in the evening. Through this I had no time for original writing. Yet this evening I anticipate some reading for research in a future book, or maybe in the Leader’s Guide for AOF.

I wanted to start another book, something closer to pleasure reading, since all my recent reading has been or still is in support of my current works-in-progress or future planned works. I also wanted to grab something off my reading pile, which is on a bookshelf in my closet. I went in there and found the perfect book: Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke.

Readers of this blog will know I love reading letters (though I haven’t written about that for a while). I don’t know a lot about Rilke, so I’m looking forward to knowing more about him through his letters.

I guess, since I consider myself a poet of sorts, I can’t say this is completely a read for pleasure. I’ll see where this leads me. As always, I’ll report back with a review.

Bible study, C.S. Lewis, Church History Novels, Engineering, Health, poetry, reading, Writing

An Enjoyable Loss of Sleep

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Will this be my only poetry book, or will inspiration to write more ever return?

This morning I awoke at about 4:30 a.m., did a restroom break, went back to bed, and couldn’t sleep. This has happened before. Normally I go right back to sleep after being up in the night, but sometimes, only on the later in the night awakenings, I don’t fall asleep. At 5:30 I decided lying there with disjointed thoughts was silly and got up. Throwing on a long sleeve shirt, slipping my feet into my aging and almost done-for slippers, I took my mug of water and headed for the sun room to read.

No coffee, you ask? No, I don’t like to take coffee before I weigh and take my blood sugar, and I wasn’t ready for the latter. So I went to the sun room and started to read in Jack, a life of C.S. Lewis by George Sayer. I had loaned this book to a friend and asked for it back recently, as I wanted to read it again. I say “again” as I’m not 100 percent sure I read it before. I think I did, well over ten years ago, about the time our Life Group was studying The Screwtape Letters. I’ll know if I read it before if, in the last chapter, I find a certain scene there. If this is my second time through it, it’s quite fresh and enjoyable, given the time lapse since the first reading.

The windows in the sun room were still open, and it was cold. I regretted not pulling on jeans and my inside jacket. The temperature was to get down to 40 overnight, and I was sure it was that low. Outside, the air was stirring. Breezes came and went. The rustling in the adjacent wood was almost constant, though never strong. Occasionally it came through the open window before me. Why didn’t I shut the window? And the one to my side? Why didn’t I go back to the bedroom and get dressed more properly? For one, I didn’t want to risk waking Lynda. Also, I much enjoy being slightly cold. It was easier to pull a blanket over my legs and chest and enjoy the coolness.

I read with good concentration and made much progress. Shortly after 6:00 a.m., Lynda opened the door. We had a brief conversation. I got up, weighed, took my sugar, got dressed, got coffee, and went back to the sunroom and reading, while Lynda went back to bed for a while. I returned to my reading, but with a little less concentration. Thoughts of poetry began to take some brain space away from the words on the page. Oh, my comprehension was still fine. It’s just that I’d like to be able to write poetry again.

Poetry is probably an affectation for me, not something I should spend time on. When I wrote quite a bit of poetry over a decade ago, I enjoyed it. I don’t know whether I produced good poetry, but it was the type of poetry I like to read, so it was good for me. In my mind I’ve outlined six additional poetry books, and have listed their potential titles on the page. I know the order I’d like to write them in. Yet, I have no inspiration beyond that.

I’m not going to force it. I have too much else to write, both works-in-progress and planned, to devote time to poetry without inspiration. I like to say that poetry comes either by inspiration or perspiration, and probably requires both. I’m going to wait, however, and not apply the perspiration in hopes that the inspiration follows. I think the opposite order of things is better.

I need to get the Leader’s Guide for this done, but it’s progressing painfully slowly. More perspiration needed, I think.

So what will my day consist of, now that the sun has risen enough behind the dense cloud cover to show light through the trees outside The Dungeon windows? I hope to finish a chapter in the Leader’s Guide to Acts Of Faith. I made some progress on it last night. I hope to write a scene in “Tango Delta Foxtrot”, and get that to the halfway point. I have a few short-term stock trades on, a couple of which will come to a conclusion today; I’ll have to pay attention to them, though all looks good right now.

I have some engineering work to do. I went by the office of my old company yesterday and picked up two project for review. One, I’m fairly sure, is small and I can possibly complete in less than two hours. The other may be larger; I won’t know for sure till I get into it. Plus I have construction reports to review. I anticipate spending three or four hours today, and as much as needed tomorrow to complete these tasks. It will cut into my writing time, but the money is good, and it’s also good for me to keep my mind engaged in engineering work.

One other thing I may do today, time permitting. II might create the computer folder and files for my next book. Tentatively titled The Sayings, it is book 3 in my Church History novels series. I plan on starting it next month, but it, too, is taking up gray cells. I need to get a few things on “paper” so that I don’t lose them. Plot threads are coming to mind. Specific scenes are coming to mind as I read for research. I’m not sure I’ll do this, but perhaps it’s better to get it done and see if I can free up that brain power for the real tasks at hand.

So, it’s going to be a full day for sure. Some exercise would be good as well. I would say that this is a day when I have truly “awakened the dawn”.

books, C.S. Lewis, Documenting America, Dune

Too Much To Read

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Eight of the fourteen bookcases in The Dungeon. Just a fraction of what we have. How am I ever going to get through all of these?

As I write this, I’m nearing the end of two books I’m reading, and am about halfway through a book I’m re-reading. It won’t be long before I’m ready to choose something else to read. But what will it be?

The books I’m just about finishing are:

  • Jews, God and History by Mix I. Dimont; down to the last 20 pages
  • Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford; about 120 pages to go in this 610 page book

The book I’m re-reading is:

  • The Inklings of Oxford: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Their Friends by Harry Lee Poe and James Ray Veneman; 60 pages into this 102 page book, reading on my smart phone.
While I’m pleased to have a number of C.S. Lewis books, I don’t have enough. May more purchases be in my future? These three are definitely on my sooner-than-later reading list.

So, again I ask myself, what’s next? I should shift to fiction, as most of my reading this year, or maybe all of it, has been non-fiction. I’d like to get back to the Dune series by Frank Herbert. Alas, I don’t have the next one in the series and I’d really like to read them in order. I should just bit the bullet and order it on my Amazon gift card or go to Barnes & Noble and buy it. I have so many books already in the house, though, I hate to bring another book in.

Other fiction I could read is try to get through some of JRR Tolkien’s works. I read the first book of The Lord Of The Rings, but struggled with it and am not anxious to try again. I also have the prequel to that, The Silmarillion, but, again, I find Tolkien hard to get through.

If I stick with non-fiction, I have a number of things to choose from. For one, I should really finish The Federalist Papers. I spot-read this as research for Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition. The last few I read held my interest, so I’m thinking I should try it again and get it read. That’s a major commitment due to length, so I don’t know.

I should also go back and re-read some of John Locke’s Treatises on Government, since I read them in a distracted, less-than-optimal state. Or, I should read some of the things he referenced. It’s quite possible that the next book I write in the Documenting America series will be Run-up to Revolution, in which case I need to be reading what the Founders were reading. That’s research, however, and I’m really thinking of pleasure reading.

If I were to shift to poetry, I should read some of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poems. I have two compilations of hers. Or, I should get back to Robert Frost or Wallace Stevens, both of whom I started reading but didn’t finish. But, I’m not sure I’m ready to read poetry right now. It makes me too anxious to then write poetry, as my Sidelines Syndrome kicks in, and all I need is another distraction from my prose writing.

Then again, I haven’t read any letters for a while. Still on my work table is volume 1 of The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis. It’s 1024 pages, so I sure wouldn’t read it cover-to-cover without a break. I’m thinking I’ll read it in a few key areas, concerning Lewis’ conversion first to theism then to Christianity. Or, I could get back to Thomas Carlyle’s letters, though that would be on-line reading. I also have a couple of C.S. Lewis compilations yet to read. They are scholarly essays, and I think I would enjoy them.

Thinking of fiction again, I have Lewis’ space trilogy at hand. Hmmm, maybe I should read the first of that and see how I like it. Or, I have a thousand novels in the house, either picked up from sales or passed on to me from my mother. I could grab any of them off the shelf and easily fill a couple of weeks of pleasure reading, finding out if these are any good by modern standards.

So many books, so little time. I haven’t talked myself into any of these yet, but will have to make a decision soon. Perhaps I’ll report back here.

Dateline: Wednesday 31 July 2019