Spring Reading Challenge Update~My Apologia

The longed for contemplative life has eluded me the past three or four weeks and I have come to understand the phrase "Spring Reading Challenge" in a new way; it has been a challenge to find any time to read. The last half of March and April have been a whirlwind of camping, baseball games and administration, houseguests, etc., etc.. All good and necessary things in this season of life but I do find myself longing for more time to read and think. Not to mention, write. And though I've not made the progress I had hoped for, I am yet optimistic and am thankful for the plan and structure that the reading challenge has provided.

The meager update:

I had never read anything by John Donne until last month and was stunned by the beauty of his poetry and prose. Hopefully another blog post on Donne will follow.

My teenagers have finished Paradise Lost, though mom still has two books (of twelve) to go. I'm reading this poem outloud, all 300+ pages of it. Milton's verse is that hard for me to follow. We all agreed that book IX (of XII) is the obvious climax--the fall of Adam and Eve. Milton's amplification of the temptations and predispositions which led Eve, and then Adam to eat the forbidden fruit provided fodder for an interesting discussion of the distinctions between man and woman. If my children remember even ten percent of this discussion they will be so, so much farther along in their understanding than I was when I first married!

I began Christianity for Modern Pagans; Pascal's Pensees, today and I can already tell that I am going to love this book. Though, it's really not a proper book, but rather Pascal's thoughts/fragments, organized and explained ("festooned") by the very readable Peter Kreeft. I read only 43 pages today but have already come up with a full page of discussion questions for us to work through on Tuesday. I am thinking that I will slow down the schedule for this book if the rest of it is as profitable for thought and discussion as the first 43 pages. Ah, I feel the contemplative life coming back to me!

All the other books on my list continue to be read, bit by bit. The Art of Teaching is nearly finished and I think I'll have to postpone Poetic Knowledge until a later date. Life is just too full right now. I did add one new book to my list and I finished about half of it before life errupted with unrelenting activity:


Uncle Tungsten, Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, by Oliver Sacks.

This is a fascinating book which will be part of oldest daughter's summer intensive chemisty course, just one of two or three books we will read as I attempt to add an element of poetic knowledge to the study of chemistry. Beautifully written. More when I finish.

And the challenge continues...