Word Of The Day

Zenith-(zee-nith) noun     The highest point attained. 


The word of the day today is chosen from "The Words You Should Know" by David Olsen. David feels that dictionaries can be downright boring and I am inclined to agree but here he hopes to have penned a book that the reader will enjoy leafing through, and that the words he has chosen are words that every educated person should be aware of, and perhaps, even be able to use in a sentence. Challenge yourself... leave me a sentence with zenith in it. Here's mine-Publishing her novel was the zenith of Mary Beth's career thus far.

Today's Quotation

"I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve."

          Baron De Montesquieu

Word Of The Day

Sesquipedalian-long word

I like this one, don't you? It's one of those words that sounds like what it is, somehow. I found this in a wonderful book "Ex Libris, Confessions of a Common Reader" by Anne Fadiman. If you like books about books or reading, you'll like this little gem. It's small in size but packed with facts, memories and musings about Fadiman's relationship to, and love for, books.

Word Of The Day

Acedia-........translated as sloth
                     a spiritual laziness
                          a soul deep boredom

     a distaste for the world and everything in it

                    the absence of care

             a kind of spiritual morphine

These are definitions borrowed from several different descriptions of Kathleen Norris' book of the same name so I can't take credit for them but I thought they were as accurate as necessary to get the point across.

Christmas is...not quite over

I hope my readers enjoyed their Christmas, that it did not bring with it the knowledge that they have neglected family and friends for the preceding year, the fact that they spent more money than they should have and that the recipients were less than grateful. I have often found that holidays make me retrospective and I can't say my thoughts are the cause of celebration most times. Christmas often finds me depressed for those reasons listed above, and vowing to change my ways in the year to come, I am grateful for New Year's, if only to make those resolutions. I have not enjoyed Christmas for quite a few years, although I enjoy the time spent with my family and even the pleasure they get from the gifts I have purchased for them. What I don't like is that Christmas is a retail holiday, created to bring money into the coffers of the industry and has nothing whatever to do with the religious aspect it claims to honor. Jesus did not have a Walmart in his life, nor did he have a ski lodge where he could spend the week. The incredible amounts of money spent during the holiday season does nothing to teach our younger generation the meaning of the spirit of giving. The result that I see most often is that of a spoilt child carrying on because they did not get what they wanted or they simply want more. The spirit of Christmas is a ghostly specter that appears only to those who are sensitive to the vibration of the universe, the collective sigh of a world deprived of simple, unconditional joy.

Look what I've done..."Tenderness of Wolves"..."Ex Libris"...and good night!

Oh boy, look at all the new things I've done with my blog. Now I'm going to try to send my LT friends over to check it out and tell me what they think and then... I hope to amuse, entertain and educate my readers. Some of the blogs I have seen have been so interesting in terms of content and I hope to provide the same interesting reading for others. Book reviews, movie reviews, topics in the news, Word of the Day, things like that...I hope others will comment also. I was a bit envious of some of the blogs I've seen but in a good way, a way that made me strive to produce something similar, something creative and inspiring to others as well. Well, it is late in the evening on a snowy, bitter cold day and its time to climb into bed with my heating pad and a good book (the only kind I read) tonight it is "The Tenderness of Wolves" by Stef Penney and also dipping into "Ex Libris, Confessions of a Common Reader" by Anne Fadiman. This is an entertaining collection of essays about books that I received as a gift from my Secret Santa on Librarything. I am long overdue on finishing "Wolves" and eager to finish the last half. It is wonderfully suspenseful and filled with characters that can be capable of more than meets the eye, I'm sure of it. Since the story is set in Canada it is chillingly appropriate with our recent snowfall in mind. And, despite taking place in the 1800's it is made cunningly current by the author's choice of characters and situation. Look for more in my review soon to follow.

 Follow this link to my review of "In the Sanctuary of Outcasts"-
http://www.librarything.com/work/7906286/reviews/54117979

I'm Back From A Long Break... and so it begins...

So much for dedication. I am feeling like a failure for not following up on my blog since what? May!? Good Lord, there's simply no excuse. Hope I can give you all something exciting to look at here. I'll pull some of my book reviews from Librarything and put them here and if I can get out to see some movies I'll put them here also. I wanted to put the Word of the Day on here also, so watch for that, all you fans. Most recently, I have been reading "American Bloomsbury" and "Little Women" and since finishing the first can go back to "The Tenderness of Wolves" which I put down for a while to finish the others. I have to figure out how to post my review over here after writing it on LT. Wish me luck!