READING WITHIN WALLS
pp 227 - I like the quote from Saint Teresa: "I became accustomed to reading them, and that small fault made me cool my desire and will to do my other tasks. And I thought nothing of spending many hours a day and night in this vain exercise, hidden from my father. My rapture in this was so great that, unless I had a new book to read, it seemed to me that I could not be happy." I am just like this! I am constantly reading instead of doing what I should be doing, and I am always buying new books.
pp 230 - Manguel writes of Japanese court women "At court, the women's days were spent mostly "gazing into space" in an agony of leisure." This quote makes me think of my sister in her dorm at West Georgia. She often sends me the same text: "im bored." I cannot imagine how terrible it would be to sit in a room filled with pretty things and do nothing all day. My sister would probably go mad.
STEALING BOOKS
pp 241 - "According to the 17th century gossipmonger Tallemant des Réaux, stealing books is not a crime unless the books are sold." Oh, how I wish this was true now. I think it sounds ridiculous, though. I love the story of Libri stealing and selling books, though. I imagine him to be a dashing gentleman with a lot of charm. He would have to be to steal all those books!
pp 243 - "Bibliokleptomania" Oh, Manguel! You slay me! Next time a friend borrows one of my books and takes too long to return it, I will call her a bibliokleptomaniac! I cannot wait!
THE AUTHOR AS READER
When reading this chapter, I continued to think of how I always read a paper out loud before I print the final copy to hear my mistakes. I learned this in ENGL 1101, and I wish I had learned this trick in high school. Reading out loud helps me find not only grammatical errors and typos, but it also helps me hear how pointless some sentences are. I've never read in public, but from what this chapter says, it would probably help me find "weak places" (pp 255) and have reader feedback.
I don't know why, but I also thought of how there are extra pages at the end of books because of the printing process. They print a certain number of pages per sheet of paper, and at the end, there are some blanks. I thought of this while reading this chapter, so I flipped to the back to see how many leftovers Manguel had, and, lo! There is a cool timeline in the back! I'm surprised the previous owner of this book hadn't ripped it out! This gave me ideas for my narrative. I only hope I can fit them in!
THE TRANSLATOR AS READER
I like the barbershop story on 263. It's funny and endearing. I can't understand why they wouldn't call the hotel. Did they treat him that way because of his accent? Because he wasn't one of them?
pp 265 - Labé writes, "but when we happen to put our thoughts in writing, how easily, later on, does our mind race through an infinity of events, incessantly alive, so that when a long time afterwards we take up those written pages we can return to the same place and to the same disposition in which we once found ourselves." I love this quote because it is so very true that we can remember so much detail from things written down. Writing down certain thoughts or events is almost better than a picture. When looking at a photo taken two years ago, you remember the place and the people in it and what you were doing, but in a journal about the same event, you have recorded your feelings and details that you would have forgotten otherwise. Do you agree with this?
I am so glad Manguel included the Bible in this chapter. Even in church, someone is still translating the scripture and helping us to understand what is being said. I think that many things were lost in the original translation from Hebrew into German, and we can probably never change that now because of such strong beliefs in the book we have today. I would love to be able to read and understand one of the earliest Bibles.
FORBIDDEN READING
pp 285 - Manguel writes about this ridiculous man Anthony Comstock who not only has an unfortunately funny last name, but he is, in fact, ignorant. You would think that grumpy old men had better things to do than arrest shopkeepers for selling the wrong kind of books in 1868. Maybe he could have spent his time more wisely going for a drive in the park to be seen where he would not be "lead astray and corrupted by disease." With all this running around destroying things, he probably had no time to read. I bet he would try to destroy or ban my blog if I put the word HEINY in it.
THE BOOK FOOL
pp 301 - Manguel writes, "it is curious that glasses have never lost this unworldly association. Even those who wish to appear wise (or at least bookish) in our time take advantage of the symbol; a pair of glasses, whether prescription or not, undermines the sensuality of a face and suggests instead intellectual preoccupations." This reminded me of an episode of Boy Meets World where Eric is trying to look smart. One of the key things is to put on a pair of glasses while thinking. He managed to look smarter! Do you think glasses make someone look smarter or "bookish"?
ENDPAPER PAGES
Did you feel this last part was a little strange? It's like he wanted to wait until there was more history of reading to write about.
2 comments:
I agree with you Labe quote. When you write something down, or look at a picture you can recall past emotions, and feelings. I really enjoy this, it always reminds me of the days of my youth. I think everyone has old pictures that they love to look at and recall their childhoods.
I also agree with your writing on reading a paper out loud before it is do. I also do this. This summer I was writing a big ENGL 2110 paper, and my sister read it aloud and helped me edit it. It is the best paper I've written thus far, and all because we read it aloud.
I'm constantly buying new books too. The only problem is I've amassed a huge collection of unread books, but one day I know I'll read them.
I'm always able to remember something MUCH better if I write it down. Pictures are nice because they provide a visual, but being able to go back and read exactly how you felt is a lot nicer. Plus, I would never get any assignments done if I didn't make a to-do list. My brain is too scattered to remember things without a textual aid.
I thought the last chapter was strange too. Like you said, it felt like Manguel was waiting to write part two of this book. Personally, I wasn't too fond of the ending (I can't even fathom that there's more on the history of reading to write about). I wish he had ended it in a similar manner that he had started the book - talking about his own story.
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