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Escapist literature can be set in any time, including the present. I think that setting a story convincingly in a past you yourself never experienced requires more skill that telling a contemporary story. That fact that some writers do it poorly is not an argument against the attempt. I...

I'm on bookmooch also. Check the inventory for silverseason. I have gotten some of our books of the month there and recycle them back into inventory after reading.

Not just theoretical. When the veterans arrived on the college campuses after WWII, the professors were delighted with these mature students. The students were apprehensive because many had not been in school for a long time, but they were serious and wanted to get on with it. They did very well.

Some of the great Victorian novels: Dickens, Bleak House Elliot, MIddlemarch Bronte, Jane Eyre

I like having books scheduled predictably. It would be good to decide on enough books to finish out the year, October through December.

If you are interested in the Greeks, I recommend Thomas Cahill's Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter. This work combines history, mythology, philosophy and art to give a compelling picture of the creativity of classic Greece. You will read Plato with greater understanding after the...

Does the Five Dialogues book include The Symposium? That is a dialog I have enjoyed going back to. It is about the nature of love. (Tip: look for the appearance of Alcibiades.) Socrates "proves" that the best function of love is to lead us to love of something higher, beauty, I think. I never...

I agree. I think the quality of the discussion has been high.

I am disappointed in this book. I first read it years ago when Hemingway and his prose style were all the fashion. At that time I saw it as an anti-war novel. Now I find his style is artificial and detached. There is some nice dry humor here and there. Some of the minor characters – like...

Regarding World War I, Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front was a stronger anti-war book than the Hemingway. I also remember Robert Graves Goodbye to All That. Not a novel, but a memoir and very strong. There must be others.

Of the Lewis books I have read, Babbitt was my favorite. The takeoff on salesmanship - advertising, promotion, and marketing - was fun to read and made a serious point. It included the conflict between the generations also, as I remember.

Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain brings Tom Sawyer (from the earlier book) back into the story and the entire tone changes. The first time I read this I hated the ending. The second time around, some years later, I saw that the slave Jim kept his dignity. Twain had made him a very full, very...

Goats are smart and resourceful and look out for their own interests. Not like us of course.

I think books expand experience, that they allow me to live in different times and places, to inhabit different bodies and personalities. This may or may not change my thinking in the sense of logical, linear thinking but certainly expands my range of sympathy and understanding.

You may notice as you read that Lady Whats-her-name (don't remember), the writer of trash for money, was the initial focus of the novel. Then, as it goes along, Melmotte enters and takes over as the center of interest. The Boardroom scenes with Melmotte and his compliant directors are wonderful...

Now posted at USD 4.36/gallon in Connecticut, but I filled the tank earlier today in Massachusetts for USD 4.02/gallon.

I'm coming late to the party. I couldn't start the book until a couple of days ago, then had to go out of town. I liked The First Circle a lot was and very impressed by the author's skill. Now, two-thirds of the way through the Hemingway, I find myself unsure how to judge it. So I'm waffling...

One reason to include the stories about the scientists is that the struggle to understand and explain nature is really the story of the scientific method. When you are presented with the results of the search you have theories or facts, but no sense of how they were arrived at. To learn more...

These are not suggestions, but I have questions. When you go back and read the beginning "Boy meets girl" are there any seeds there of the ending? Why is he "just curious" about what she is doing? This suggests a rather low level of emotional involvement. Reread the part where "girl...

Answer: Yes, if you've never tasted it you don't miss it. Question: But can you give up chocolate?