This week was one of those weeks in which I got behind before I even realized that I was behind. *sigh*
I spent the first of the week still hacking and coughing so much that by Wednesday everything I ate or drank had a faint underlying taste of cherry hall's cough drops. Bleh!😬 We had multiple appointments, more medication changes, school to tackle, and the never ending laundry and dishes to stay on top of. Coupled with the fact that everyone wants to eat more or less three times a day...the moments were gone before I realized it.
So...I will begin with the Book of James and work backwards. I read the Book of James to fulfill the Brighter Winter Challenge. I not only have read it, but I am transcribing it and putting into practice what I learned from How to Study your Bible by Dwight L Moody. I am always challenged by James - he doesn't shy away from the importance of putting into practice what you profess your faith to be. I plan to read it two or three more times this coming week.
I finally, FINALLY, read A Christmas Carol. This was a book to fulfill two challenges - the brevity challenge for 52 books in 52 weeks, and two squares for Brighter Winter (a book sat in winter and a classic). Brief though it is (coming in at just 100 pages), this is the very first time I have ever read it in its entirety. I saw the movie as a kid (and was terrified out of my mind) and so never had a desire to actually read the book. But last year we watched the "Man Who Invented Christmas". I was all gungho to read it aloud after the movie. Doesn't that movie make you want to read the book?!?! But, we only made it to Stave Two and had to abandon it. This year, I again watched "The Man Who Invented Christmas" (more than once, I really do love that movie!). I started the book over on this past Sunday and loved every.single.moment I squirreled away reading it. I would recommend, if you are hesitant, have had a bad experience with the movie as a kid, or just aren't interested in reading this classic...watch "The Man Who Invented Christmas", pour yourself a cuppa and immerse yourself in the pages.
Now for The Great Passage. I have never, ever read anything by this author before. I knew in joining the 52 books in 52 week challenge it would get me to step out of my comfort zone and read books that stretch me, I just didn't expect to enjoy it so much.
I love The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and 84 Charring Cross Road and I don't know why, but this book reminded me of both of those. It wasn't about writing letters, but it did pull you in and immerse you into the characters lives and obsession with words. I found myself craving soba noodles (even went and got some today to make) and steaming mugs of tea (or in my case coffee).
I adored the main cast of characters - Araki and Professor Matsumoto. Mrs. Sakai and Nishioka. Majime and Kishibe. All of them, in one aspect or another, are determined to get "The Great Passage" ready to be printed. All of them are such cherished friends that I feel like I know them and loathe to part with them at the end of the book.
The story begins with Araki's introduction to his love (obsessive love) of dictionaries. He, over a lunch of soba noodles and after cup of cold barley tea, tells his beloved Professor Matsumoto the cold, hard truth. He is going to retire before he can help edit the lastest project from Gembu books. This will prove to be no small parting because the two of these men have been ensconsed side by side for more than three decades. So Araki sets off on a monumental journey to discover (actually uncover) someone who has the passion and perseverance and that something undefinable, yet distingushing to carry this to the finish line.
He finds Majime.
I LOVE Majime's character. I love his awkwardness, the fact that his hair is always going in all directions but the right one, how he dresses, his passion for words (his very soul is on fire).
Before reading this book, I never stopped to think of how important choosing just the right word is, the weight and tint of paper for the book, the process of editing and choosing what to include and the truly difficult challenge of what to leave out. I highly recommend this book and I will leave you a few of my favorite quotes:
" “Editing a dictionary isn’t like editing any other book or magazine,” the professor pointed out. “It’s a peculiar world. You need extreme patience, a capacity for endless minutiae, a love of words bordering on obsession, and a broad enough outlook to stay sane. What makes you think there are any young people like that nowadays?” " pg 3 or 4
"However much food you ate, as long as you were alive, you would experience
hunger again, and words, however you managed to capture them, would disperse
again like phantoms into the void." pg 54
*I read physical copies of the Bible and A Christmas Carol, and kindle version of The Great Passage.
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