Dr Kelp's Book Blog

Reading Quote 15 Nov 2009

2009-11-14T22:09:00.000-08:00

When I only begin to read, I forget I'm on this world. It lifts me on wings with high thoughts
Anzia Yezierska

The transformative power of reading is found in this quote. In a sense reading is an out of body experience.

Peace and Joy
DK

Reading Quote 14 Nov 2009

2009-11-14T11:55:00.000-08:00

Tis the good reader that makes the good book
Ralph Waldo Emerson (103-1882)

The interaction between the reader and the book is a mystical and magic thing. In a sense none of us ever reads the same book. The mediating force of our personal experiences interacts between the pages of the book and our brain. Even when you read the same book again it is not the same book, as time has passed and your personal experiences have changed.

Peace and Light

DK

Beware the Man of One Book

2009-11-09T17:25:00.000-08:00

Beware the Man of One Book

Thomas Aquinas

A wise man, that Thomas Aquinas. Whether the book is the Bible, the Koran or the Communist manifesto there is a danger of having a closed mind when wedded to one book only.

I am a man of many books, some would say too many books. But I love books, the more the merrier.

Have a good read

DK

The Alchemist

2009-11-03T06:44:00.000-08:00

I have just started reading this much recommended book by Paulo Coelho. It was given to me by a friend but I was also interested in the comments made on Coelho by Ken Robinson in his book about Epiphanies. Coelho's parents did not want him to become a writer and they had him admitted to a mental hospital where he underwent 3 courses of ECT. Now thats what I call suffering for your art.

Luckily the experience did not put him off and he went on to become a major writer.

Well must go and start reading.

Ciao

Grant

Make some CASH here

A Flight of Fancy

2009-10-09T07:46:00.000-07:00

When I only begin to read, I forget I'm on this world. It lifts me on wings with high thoughts.

Anzia Yezierska

Reading can be pure escapism, an escape from the mundane.

DK

A Time to Read

2009-10-06T07:54:00.001-07:00

Anytime is a good time to lie down with a good book. My favourite reading times are on rainy days. Curled in front of the fire with a book - luxury. Just before bed is another time that I enjoy reading - a great way to get ready for a nights rest.

Stll I'm up for a quick read anytime, have book will read!!

DK

Diary Writing...

2009-08-08T14:46:00.000-07:00

"It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves one having to bother anyone else with them"

Isabel Colgate

The same could be said of many blogs including this one!!

Dr Kelp Recommends

Directed Reading - Seneca

2009-07-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

"Desultory reading is delightful, but to be most beneficial, our reading must be directed."

Seneca (5BC - 65AD)

I guess like most people that I enjoy both desultory and directed reading. Reading mind candy like thrillers and spy stories is fun but not that productive in the long run. Directed reading helps to make you think and build up a picture of a subject over time. Directed reading is often more difficult because you have to rein your wild mind in. I'm reading through some Essays by Emerson currently, and these essays need close reading to get the best out of them. But after some hard reading I always relax myself by reading something lighter.

Go well

DK

Advice for Writers

2009-07-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

"If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write."

Stephen King

There you go, a bit of advice from a very famous writer.

Keep well

DK

Spansh Proverb about Books

2009-05-31T06:56:00.000-07:00

"Books are hindrances to persisting stupidity"

Spanish Proverb

And that is why many regimes censor of burn books. Reading books helps to set your mind free. The public library is actually a freedom centre where people can liberate themselves from stupidity.

Peace

Book Quote: 25 May 2009

2009-05-25T06:38:00.000-07:00

"Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege of the learned. A widely-read man never quotes accurately, for the rather obvious reason that he has read too widely".

Hesketh Pearson

I really liked this quote because I often find myself paraphrasing or rephrasing the quotes of others. I always thought that it was a side effect of being a careless reader, but not so according to Pearson.

Have a great day

DK

Don't Join the Book Burners!

2009-04-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

"Don't join the book burners. Don't think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book..."

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Reading books can be dangerous. It can open your mind to new ideas, or xpose the error of old ones. Because it is so dangerous, many people try to ban, burn and censor books. A well read populace is a challenge to any political demagogue.

be an anarchist and read a book...

DK

Reading Quote for April 2 2009

2009-04-02T05:36:00.000-07:00

"When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me".

W. Somerset Maugham

It is one of the delights of reading that we get such flashes of light and meaning from what we read...

DK

Reading Quote of the day

2009-03-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up
its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.

Joseph Addison

Surely this is good advice, and Addison himself provided some excellent material for the reader. The Taler and The Spectator magazines are still worth reading after hundreds of years.

Reading Advice

2009-03-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

"Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year".

Horace Mann

Absolutely good advice, but I would recommend 15 hours a day, if you can spare it. A day without reading is like a day without love. I get all shaky if I can't find anything to read - I think I must be addicted.

Keep well

DK

They Write and I Read

2009-03-14T06:57:00.000-07:00

Thank God for authors and writers. They write and my job is to read and enjoy. On the way back from a fantastic meal in an English Pub (The Feathers, Hedley on the Hill) I was discussing favourite authors with a friend of mine. Some of our faves were: Dickens, Koontz, Hardy, Keneally, Carey, Gee and Courtney. Books transport you to another time, another place, sometimes to a different sex, race or religion. Reading + Good eating and drinking coupled with travel are the things that give me the most pleasure in life (family and friends notwithstanding).

Keep Well DK

A Note from the Bard

2009-02-03T06:20:00.000-08:00

My library was Dukedom large enough.
Willian Shakespeare

I agree with WS on this one. I rule by library as a benign dictator. I am a well contented man within the walls of my library.

Reading Quote Four

2009-01-30T07:44:00.000-08:00

A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.

Charles Baudelaire

Writing Quote One

2009-01-30T07:40:00.000-08:00

There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are

W. Somerset Maugham

Half the month has gone

2009-01-16T07:46:00.001-08:00

I can't believe that I have not posted for 2 weeks. Must be post Xmas langour or laziness. I'm reading two interesting biographies at the moment, one on Josef Stalin and the other on Mao Tse Tung. Both dictators and murderers exceeding Hitler. The banality of evil comes out in both books as does the overarching theory of Communism and the party line. Makes for sobering reading in a new century.

DK

Happy New Reading Year

2009-01-01T05:51:00.000-08:00

We are now in 2009. A time to read more books. Last year was a bit of a downer on my reading for a number of reasons. I only read 72 books, well below average for me.

Still it is now a new year with new opportunities. I'm sure that 2009 will bring me further enlightenment from my pursuit of reading.

Happy New Year.

Reading Quote Number 3 - Benjamin Franklin

2008-12-22T09:01:00.000-08:00

"If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write something worth reading or do things worth the writing".

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

And of course he took hos own advice and did both...

DK

Reading Quote 2

2008-12-19T09:12:00.000-08:00

"I am eternally grateful..for my knack of finding in great books, some of them very funny books, reason enough to feel honored to be alive, no matter what else might be going on"

Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)

I also find reading to be a life affirming occupation. I like to spend some of my life out there doing things and the rest contemplating distilled life contained in the books I read.

Keep well and may the force be with you.

DK

A Quote on Reading and Books

2008-12-15T02:01:00.000-08:00

"It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own"

Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle (1859-1930)

Of course the corollary to this is it is a great thing to end life with a large number of really good books that you have read, enjoyed and shared with others!!

Have a great week leading up to Xmas

DK

Mao - the Unknown Story

2008-12-01T11:50:00.000-08:00

I was listening to a Clive James Podcast last week where he interviewed Jun Chang the writer of the best selling book called Wild Swans. It was a great interview where she spoke of the book she has written called Mao: the Unknown story. I was so intrigued that I went out and purchased the book. It is due to snow this weekend, so the book can keep me warm!!

Happy reading

DK