I’m ashamed to say that I still haven’t finished Wendell Berry’s The Art of the Commonplace. However, I only have 20 pages left. If you read one book this year, let it be this one.
“To live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of Creation. When we do it knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily, destructively, it is a desecration. In such desecration we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral loneliness, and other to want.”–Wendell Berry, “The Gift of Good Land” written 1979.
The other book I’m currently enjoying was a Christmas gift from my best friend Eleanor: The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susannah Clarke. I LOVED Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and this collection of short storied is just as delightful. This one isn’t as weighty as Berry’s essays but it’s full of fairies so what’s not to like?
Some of Benjamin’s current favorites are:
and:
He is obsessed with this Jan Brett version of Goldilocks and has been talking about it non-stop. Sometimes he gets the dialogue confused. He’s been saying “Somebody’s been sitting in my porridge!” instead of “Somebody’s been eating my porridge/sitting in my chair.” It’s cute and I haven’t corrected him.
Aw he’s so sweet! And don’t be ashamed. I don’t think I read one new book in all of 2010 (I’m hanging my head in shame here). 2011 is a new year! 🙂