Rebecca Reads

I really love your library system in many ways. It is so great that I can request any book in a Chicagoland library and receive it within the week. That pretty much takes care of any book I’ll ever want to read! I like to visit your branch and browse. Your children’s room is likewise [...]

In his first chapter (”Speak, Child”) of Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter, Seth Lerer discusses the “infancy” of children’s literature. Such a study requires a review of children’s education, as that is the basis for children’s literature. Lerer discusses the classics (the “really old classics,” as I’ve dubbed them on [...]

Lately, I’ve found myself starting books (particularly nonfiction), and not finishing them before picking up the next. There are so many books out there, and I am struggling to decide which one to read now, and next, and next year!
Maybe, I thought, if I write on my blog what I’m going to read this week, [...]

I’m excited to delve into the world of Really Old Classics. By the end of next July, I hope to read five works. I don’t know what the others will be, but I intend for three of them to be:

The Illiad by Homer
The Odyssey by Homer
The Aeneid by Virgil

Yes, the basics.
Want to read some too? [...]

If you would like to share your reviews for the Really Old Classics Challenge, please leave a link to your post in the comments to this post.
If you do not have a blog, feel free to share your thoughts to the works you’ve read in the comments as well.
Thanks, and enjoy!

Children 2,000 years ago read and memorized Virgil and Homer, and Aesop’s Fables were common knowledge. Even 200 years ago these classics were widely read. Now, there are thousands of new books published each year. But what about those really old ones? Have we read those yet? Any of them?
That’s why I’ve decided to host [...]

It’s Banned Books Week!
I didn’t realize that until the week had already begun. As I’m in the middle of a million books right now (see Shelfari widget), I’m not going to start reading another until I finish something!

“And indeed, what is better than to sit by one’s fireside in the evening with a book, while the wind beats against the window and the lamp is burning?” …”One thinks of nothing,” he continued; “the hours slip by. Motionless we traverse countries we fancy we see, and your thought, blending with the fiction, playing [...]

A recent blogging discussion has prompted me to ask the question: What is book banning? I’ve never thought it right to ban a book, but since I’ve recently been accused of doing just that, I thought I’d ask all of you what you think. Do I actually favor book banning? I’m stumped here.

There were 37 comments on the post, 36 of which were entered into the contest. I assigned everyone a number (in the order you commented, excluding the person who didn’t want to be entered.) Using a random number generator, the winner is…..