He stood on a chair to get them down. But he opened the volume which he first took from the shelf: somehow, one is apt to read in a makeshift attitude, just where it might seem inconvenient to do so.
- George Eliot, Middlemarch
I’m reading Middlemarch for the second time.1 How? How is it so good? It’s only been a few years, but it got stuck in my mind after a conversation at church coffee hour about books we can return to at various times in life and have a whole new experience all over again.2 This go-round, some of the recurring conversations in my life are about all the complexities of vocation and the complexities of money. Eliot’s novel has inspired me both to tenderly ponder and to laugh about my own middling life in a middling town.
Also in consequence I’ve been speaking to the baby with a British accent and very old-timey turns of phrase.
A few other things I’ve read lately, for your next cozy rainy spring day, perhaps?
In the “miscellaneous” category
I found this reflection to be just simply true and companionable, and it made me want to read whichever Berry book comes next in company:
Books!
I just got my signed copy of Looking Up: A Birder’s Guide to Hope Through Grief by Courtney Ellis3 and I’m so stoked to read it! I’ve just loved Courtney’s other books but I think this one will also be a new and deeper joy.
Between Two Trailers: A Memoir looks to be for fans of Tara Westover and Mary Karr, but with J. Dana Trent’s own wisdom, charm, and grace. If you’re like me and you like memoir as a genre but never know exactly how to find the memoirs, take! this! rec!
Two articles continuing this month’s conversation about creativity, compensation, and sharing our work:
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