Philosophy Made Fun

I had to take time to let you know that if someone is looking for something light and funny, O.K. not ha-ha funny but the type of reading that makes your mind smile, I have a suggestion. It is the series ( one of them) that A. McCall Smith writes; 44 Scotland Street has a very highbrow cuteness to it. I was never good at reading philosophy books except to help my daughter get through an idea when she was at college. Which just means that I do understand the smart remarks but I also miss one or two points now and then in a story. I like this type of series which include a lot of characters but done in such a way that you can easily follow them in their different situations from book to book. I looked up the bio-info. on McCall Smith and found out he really is a very accomplish professor of law but has a degree in ethics and other very human studies. I am always surprised at the amount of information that is in Wikipedia (just remember it is not an exact information place). Your mind will thank you, I know a puzzle is better, but you won't lose any small piece !

O.K. this is a confession, I guess. As I get older I have found that audio-books are great.
You can be "reading" as you care for your 4 yr.old granddaughter or cooking or even just doing your ordinary things around your house. And if you fall asleep or get too busy to remember what happen you can go back and re-hear it. The public library has a great number of books on cassettes but now more and more on Cd's. Biographies and other non-fiction books are available.
But I still feel guilty because just the act of picking up a book is in my mind what Japanese think of their tea ritual. Am I normal? But I guess I'm at the point of life where books provide the stimuli for hope in humans. Religion is my daily bread but books in all it's forms are the spice or 'butter' on the bread. I remember as a pre-teen reading books on saints, they all (or almost all)
read constantly. When I walk into any office, when I see books or even better books on shelves it is a sure bet that the person is someone who is interesting, here I'll admit I may not end up liking this person, but that doesn't mean he or she would not be interesting.
So if you haven't tried audio-books you'll enjoy them; they read word for word the author's words and there are some really great readers. Books because of them I love authors!

On my last posting I forgot to mention that Charles Todd-the mother and son cooperation, are Americans living in different states but their policeman is a Scotland Yard detective!
I got hooked on British stories when I started reading Ruth Rendell, she is good but like Stephen King, she gets gloomier as she writes more, so in order to save my sanity I stuck to stories where the bad guys get caught. Still I think it is easier to see the 'whole picture' from a distance. As travel becomes more common and necessary, seeing crime elsewhere is easier to stay focus on the story and not worry on our national crime rate. Besides for some reason American writers use a lot of foul language. O.K. it is necessary at times put it hurts the eyes!
Well I just wanted to clear some points , happy reading.

Life is really going fast, can it be that as we get older, time starts to shrink?

I'm trying to ween myself from television, which isn't too hard since there are really few good programs. PBS is still the best around and here in Chicago we have 3 stations to pick from.

I take advantage to see those English productions of the Jane Austen's novels, which for some reason I find so long-winded to read. But on the opposite end of my reading skills I find Shakespearean plays fun and very witty if you just read them slowly enough. The BBC also does a great job with the Elizabeth George (American) mysteries. They are great police stories but easy to understand, I guess bad is the same everywhere.

They are also doing Kathy Reich's books on the forensic doctor, but to tell you the truth the
books are better, and more serious than the TV version.

I wonder if they (the TV people) will ever try to do the post-WWI detective stories by Charles Todd. Actually this is the first time that I heard that a mother and son were the writers in this very good and interesting series. Yes it is British but it still very good.

Now comes the American writer Daniel Silva, I could almost bet money on the fact that one of his books will turn up one of these days, as a quick moving movie. He has a great way of explaining some of the intricate issues with Israel, an easy read. I could go on and on.

A true book friend has died.

It is a sad day Anthony Minghella has died. He was only 54 yrs. old, young!
He is the director of such books as "The Talented Mr. Ripley" "The English Patient"
and "Cold Mountain". If you ever get to see those added information at the end of the
DVDs there is a good amount of information on all that the directors do to stay true to the
books they are in trusted to bring to film.
Mr. Minghella was an incredible director who soaked in as much matter surrounding
the story he was working on. Not just the book, but the time and customs of the era
when the story takes place. When possible he worked with the authors to stay as true
as possible to what the author meant.
I had been looking for my list of books of Alexander McCall Smith and his variety of topics.
And to find out he (Minghella) had just finished one of those good books really made me
even more sad. God bless his soul for all he did to make so many readers happy.

Cold Mountain-movie-book

Have you ever seen a movie that you really like? I have found several, the last one was the
movie Cold Mountain (2003). I had seen the book years before but never tried to read it.
Somehow I saw a bit of it on t.v. and decided to see it all. I did find it to be very well done and Kidman was good in this one, but Renee Zellweger glowed in it. Once I fall for a movie I go to the library catalog and see if there is a book for this or in the titles at the end of the movie they will state if it was based on a book or just the words- written by- big clues!
The book was good but after reading it I realized that Minghella (the director) did even a better job in condensing it and giving the viewer the essence of the book without the long, long journey.
Then there are times I like a book, like Gone With the Wind and find that the movie only skimmed the top, there were so many smaller stories left out in the movie version, I was so
surprised that it won so many Oscars. I kept telling my mom, if you love the movie read the book! Mom is not a reader, and I feel sorry people like mom, who miss out on so much more to these stories.

Sister Wendy's Book on Prayer

This book is not a mystery but a treasure I found, almost by accident. We had chosen it at our laddies book club mostly because we've seen her on T.V. and is a good critic on art.
But she has written a book easy to understand and simple to follow or to see how easy it really is to feel comfortable with the way we each choose to communicate we Our Lord.

If you find yourself wondering like most of us at one point or other "am I doing it right?",
this book will help a lot.