Bending Toward the Sun

Feminism, Education, History and Literature. And Sometimes Food.

Posts tagged books

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We cannot enrich the minds of our students by testing them on texts that purposely ignore their hearts. By doing so, we are withholding from our neediest students any reason to read at all. We are teaching them that words do not dazzle but confound. We may succeed in raising test scores by relying on these methods, but we will fail to teach them that reading can be transformative and that it belongs to them.
Claire Needell Hollander, “Teach the Books, Touch the Heart”

Filed under Claire Needell Hollander New York Times education literature reading teaching books

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vintageanchor: “When you’re young, you think everything you do is disposable. You move from now to now, crumpling time up in your hands, tossing it away. You’re your own speeding car. You think you can get rid of things, and people too - leave them behind. You don’t yet know about the habit they have, of coming back.” —Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin One of my favorite books ever.

vintageanchor:

“When you’re young, you think everything you do is disposable. You move from now to now, crumpling time up in your hands, tossing it away. You’re your own speeding car. You think you can get rid of things, and people too - leave them behind. You don’t yet know about the habit they have, of coming back.”
—Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

One of my favorite books ever.

Filed under Margaret Atwood literature The Blind Assassin books reading

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Reasons to ♥ New York

shakeandco:

28. Because St. Mark’s Bookshop Lives.

And at the eleventh hour, the borough president stepped in and negotiated a smaller rent reduction with Cooper Union. Stringer told Contant he intervened after witnessing the end of Coliseum Books and the Upper West Side’s Shakespeare & Co. “He felt that whole area lost part of its soul,” Contant says, “and he didn’t want to see that happen again.”

via New York Magazine’s Reasons to Love New York 2011

St. Mark’s Bookshop = one of the best bookstores in the country.

Filed under St. Mark's Bookshop New York books bookstores literature

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1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

I’ve taken a break from studying for finals (I’m less than two weeks away from the end of my first semester of graduate school) to bring you this important update:

1001 Books cover

Yup, I received this in the mail today for a total of $5.69 from Amazon. It’s a used book, but it’s in great condition. I will in no way read all of these 1001 Books (have you SEEN my “to-read” book list on Goodreads?) but what I love about this guide so far is that it lists books by century. Most of the books I’ve read were written in the 2000s and many in the late 1900s, but I haven’t read beyond that.

Eventually I’ll start a list of books on this list that I’ve read, and attempt to get some book recommendations from this list. Do you own this book, and does it dictate and/or help you choose which books to read next?

Filed under books book nerd literature bookish

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Jeffrey Eugenides [un]successfully answers, “What books have you hated and why?”

I went to an event this past Friday where author of Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides was interviewed about his newest book, The Marriage Plot.

An audience member asked him, “What books have you hated and why?”

As it states in this Chicago Tribune article,:

Instead, he eased into some thoughts about the issue of influence on writers and whether that is good or bad. When you like a book, it’s telling you something about your own character and style, he mused. And so, Eugenides offered that people could be easier on themselves and open themselves up to those other voices and approaches. “People should be less anxious about influence than they are,” he said.

Read more about the talk here.

Filed under Jeffrey Eugenides The Marriage Plot books literature