bitofbookishness

[bitofbookishness]

Heh! That's the start of Jane Austen's Persuasion in Nederlands! Grappig! (Funny!)

Chapter 1: Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed. This was the page at which the favourite volume always opened:

"ELLIOT OF KELLYNCH HALL.”

#books #reading #recommended reading #english lit in nederlands

[bitofbookishness]

Certosa di Padula (est. 1306).

#cagliostro 955 #Padula #Carthusians #1306 #Italy #Christianity #madonna and child

[bitofbookishness]

I'm sorry this is random and it was almost a year ago when you posted it but I noticed that you read the Shuttle and that's my absolute favorite book ever and I have never met anyone else who's read it!!!

Thanks for letting me know! 💖 I still find myself thinking about it after so long, and I’m thinking about rereading it soon. It’s such a well-written and thought-provoking story! Unfortunately there are a lot of very good books that don’t get enough attention! Let us be grateful that we are blessed enough to have had this story find its way to us!🌟📚 🥰

#today #asks #books #reading #frances hodgson burnett #the shuttle

[bitofbookishness]

Books for me Kitty from the Geelong West branch of @geelonglibraries. We spent ages and had a lot of fun! Kitty especially loves the kids’ computers! https://www.instagram.com/p/CZyBUiTJ1rvlP6wJehG1aXW3oQMwDncymY-3BM0/?utm_medium=tumblr

[bitofbookishness]

J. R. R. Tolkien, undisputedly a most fluent speaker of this language, was criticized in his day for indulging his juvenile whim of writing fantasy, which was then considered—as it still is in many quarters— an inferior form of literature and disdained as mere “escapism.” “Of course it is escapist,” he cried. “That is its glory! When a soldier is a prisoner of war it is his duty to escape—and take as many with him as he can.” He went on to explain, “The moneylenders, the knownothings, the authoritarians have us all in prison; if we value the freedom of the mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as possible."

Stephen R. Lawhead

#reblog #quotes #jrr tolkien #cs lewis

[bitofbookishness]

So true! Beautifully written!

“to be an english major is to be many things: a writer, yes, a reader, yes, a scholar, yes—but also partly an historian—a philosopher—an analyst—a politician—a classicist—a lawyer—a translator—a theorist—a scientist—an archivist—an astronomer—! the study of english rarely stands alone. at its best it is a concert of ideas, an orchestra of disciplines, a wild meadow of scholarship. it stands in a room of human interests and emotions and works and dreams and it beams. it shakes hands again and again and again and again, takes a slot on every lady’s dance card, rides every ride at the amusement park, collects a business card from every pocket in an effort to paint a picture of minds and bodies and lives and ages and imaginations, all as inseparable from one another as your lungs and your breath. to be an english major is to look at the world and be left speechless and then attempt to speak, knowing you’ll be clumsy as a babe. to be an english major is to know you cannot explain it alone—and neither can any other.”

— from my journal, 4 february 2022

#reblog #sometimes on a cold day in february you simply must... wax poetic #books #reading #quotes #instant happification

[bitofbookishness]

Need some desk inspiration? Here it is! Lovely meaningful things, and your naughty books facing the wall so they stop distracting you, right @ohk4te ?

new desk set-up feat. a few of my grandmother’s old art books, my pens in the paint-splattered jar that used to hold her brushes, my current tbr pile, the origami squirrel my partner made me that i can’t part with, the little jewelry dish one of my sisters made me for christmas

#reblog #study space inspiration

[bitofbookishness]

Bought this lovely book at @thebookbird_geelong the other day. I’ve really been delighting in the bright pictures and the funny jokes. And it’s great to see some of my favourite books show up in there. Definitely recommend - the book and the shop! 😊 #booknerd #booklover #bookshoplover #independentbookstore https://www.instagram.com/p/CZrCAkOp66uLKOBmKg_uI3bTn5d8DAjpWTfGuM0/?utm_medium=tumblr

#booknerd #booklover #bookshoplover #independentbookstore

[bitofbookishness]

Currently reading (okay, struggling through) this marvellous allegory. I am really enjoying it, and appreciating the spiritual edification Dante offers, and the helpfulness and wit of Sayers’ notes, but I have a lot of other things too, so it’s hard to let go of them and sink into this. #dantealighieri #thedivinecomedy #purgatorio #dorothylsayers #literature #medievalliterature #100daysofdante https://www.instagram.com/p/CZrBkdgpmmw5-UTa6OiyeFszVdpDmJXx1pClMk0/?utm_medium=tumblr

#dantealighieri #thedivinecomedy #purgatorio #dorothylsayers #literature #medievalliterature #100daysofdante

[bitofbookishness]

At the bottom-left is my trusty Slow planner with Little Moments 2022 insert, and the rest you see is all my @kikki.k purchases yesterday! Little Moments feature journal (so pretty!); a lovely planner from the previous Malala range (seriously marked down, savvy me) and daily goals/to-do insert, pencil-shaped trinket tray, and Little Moments stickers (seen in the left-hand planner—quite a few of the stickers went to my sticker-fiend daughter). I did feel a bit bad getting so many things so heavily reduced, but really, I’m saving them from landfill, so I’m being environmentally responsible in bringing these things home to use and love! And I do so love my kikki.K goodies! #ihavethisthingwithkikkik #kikkik #plannerlover https://www.instagram.com/p/CZq1HtfpWtKalnAMs9kIHC1WVeZB2zXQ7M5ZhY0/?utm_medium=tumblr

#ihavethisthingwithkikkik #kikkik #plannerlover

[bitofbookishness]

Baby books! Awwww! 🥰

Have you ever wondered where books come from?

Well then, let me show you, because that’s what I do for a living.

Right now, it’s this time of the year, and the little ones have just freshly hatched:

You’ll notice they’re still blind and naked when they hatch. So I make them little coats to keep them warm during their first winter:

See how they happily line up to put them on:

See? Better. Now they’re ready to go and explore the world.

And if they make it through the winter and we take good care of them, they will grow up to be strong and wise like their older fellows:

So, in case you were ever wondering, now you know.

#reblog #books #publishing #instant happification

[bitofbookishness]

From “Terns” and “Where Does the Temple Begin, Where Does it End” by the American poet, Mary Oliver.

I came across these two snippets of poetry in a short video that randomly appeared in my Youtube feed: “4 ideas for a more creative 2022” by an artist, Ian Roberts. One of the ideas was to “pay attention to your artistic and poetic vision.” This is where he referred to these lines by Mary Oliver. Then he said something like this (paraphrased): both of these quotes speak to the spirit of the artist, of really seeing the world, believing in it, being arrested by it, and finding some way to give personal expression to what you have seen.

I was arrested by the message in these words, as I have been reading Rod Michalko’s book, “The mystery of the eyes and the shadow of blindness”. Michalko writes that neither the artist, not the blind person, can forget the visible world (it is impossible) but in a sense need to do so in order to be able to depict the world ‘artistically’. Both the artist and the blind person “confront the difficulty of discovering both their world and their depiction of it […] It is never ‘easy’ to capture the world artistically or to live in the world without seeing”, writes Michalko. For artists and blind persons, seeing cannot be taken for granted. For others, writes Michalko, “seeing is easy” because most people are “satisfied with seeing whatever there is to see”. I take this to mean that in accepting what we see, we are reassured that the world is as it is; there is a satisfaction and comfort in relying on sight in this way. What both Roberts (via Mary Oliver) and Michalko point to is the act of paying attention to your vision (both literally and metaphorically). This is important in ‘seeing’ the world - not necessarily as it is, but in the meaning of the seeing that emerges from within, as a subjective expression back into the world, in “looking with arms wide open”.

I love how you can be doing a completely trivial activity (scrolling through YouTube), when something suddenly catches your atttention, and serendipitously connects to half-forms ideas that have been meandering their way around the corridors of your mind. https://www.instagram.com/p/CY2P39Fv-Qh/?utm_medium=tumblr

#reblog #creativity #quotes #poetry #mary oliver

[bitofbookishness]

So I totally missed this email back in October!

Confessions of a Genre Hopper turned 10 today!

And to celebrate, we forget to go on tumblr very often! >.<

#tumblr birthday #tumblr milestone

[bitofbookishness]

Just finished reading.

#today #books #reading #w p balkenende #dierendag op kerstfeest #animals day at christmas #dutch literature #christian literature #children’s literature

[bitofbookishness]

Just finished reading. An interesting insight into medieval morals, but it makes for spiritually heavy reading, despite the fun of making jokes about reading hell!

#today #books #reading #reading like a zoo 2022 #dante #the divine comedy #hell

[bitofbookishness]

Enclosed walkway. Closely-spaced pergola beams and plant-supporting wall battens, stained to match, increase the feeling of enclosure in the existing side garden.

The Garden Book, 1984

#reblog #beautiful garden inspiration #instant happification

[bitofbookishness]

Just finished making this Christmas angel from an old Mollie Makes kit. She’ll be a belated Christmas present for one of my besties. Unfortunately, I’d decluttered the magazine with the instructions and templates, so I had to wing the method a bit (lol), and then I came up with the wings and halo, and I really like how she’s turned out!

#today #doing things that aren’t reading #christmas #decorations #gifts