Still wandering after all these years

At ones command

To a large degree this blog has helped me re-visit a number of books that I have enjoyed over the years. I have had a habit of underlining things that I read that I really like. I often go back and re-read the books I like best. Sometimes I just read quickly through the book where I underlined the first time. The blog has just been another excuse to go back and look. It helps keep the thoughts fresh.

So why bother to read an re read


"to be able to turn at will, in a book of your own, to those

passages which count for you, is to have your

wealth at instant commmad."

John Livingston Lowes

Education of a Wandering Man had a big impact on me.

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It is worth it to read books on reading. A good one is "Your well read life" as shown in the picture above. These and other books give points of view on what is worth reading and for me the always stimulate ideas. The surprise for me was Louis Lamour. I had never read any of his books. He has over 225 million books in print. 86 novels, 16 short stories and three non-fiction books. Even so he, for me, was just a western author writing about the old west. Then I read his autobiograhphy shown here. In it he talks about his "wandering" as a young man but as he tells his story he talks about the books he read while he was wandering. Wow. What a surprise. The literature and history he read were not things you would expect from a western writer. He communicated the passion he had for what he read. He not only shared my excitement for books but he made me curious about some new books. I just didn't think that someone who seemed to love the old west would at the same time like so many of the older books that I did. So I read some of his short stories. Kind of like Stephan King. I really didn't like his novels but after I read a few things about him I read "Heart in Atlantis" and was really impressed with his skills. You don't have to love the subjects that Lamour and King tackle to really see their skills. Their fiction seemed so much better when there full interests were understood better.

"Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist"

Emerson

"What counts, in the long run, is not what your read;

it is what you sift through in your own mind"

Eleanor Roosevelt

"Tis the good reader that makes the good book"

Emerson

Education according to Lamour is a breadth of view, ease of understanding, tolerance for others, and a background from which the mind can explore in any direction.

Me Too, Still Wandering