A beautiful tribute to book, television, and movie critic John Leonard in Salon has this lovely quote from him about the books he loved:
My whole life I have been waving the names of writers. From these writers, for almost 50 years, I have received narrative, witness, companionship, sanctuary, shock, and steely strangeness; good advice, bad news, deep chords, hurtful discrepancy, and amazing grace…The books we love, love us back. In gratitude, we should promise not to cheat on them — not to pretend we’re better than they are; not to use them as target practice, agitprop, trampolines, photo ops or stalking horses; not to sell out scruple to that scratch-and-sniff infotainment racket in which we posture in front of experience instead of engaging it, and fidget in our cynical opportunism for an angle, a spin, or a take, instead of consulting compass points of principle, and strike attitudes like matches, to admire our wiseguy profiles in the mirrors of the slicks. We are reading for our lives, not performing like seals for some fresh fish.
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Previous Posts
Celebrate Abraham Lincoln's Birthday
Celebrate the birthday of our 16th President with some of the classic movies about his life. Ahead of us this are are the Steven Spielberg epic, based on Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin, with Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field, which will be out in Decem
posted 8:00:32am Feb. 12, 2012 |
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Tribute: Whitney Houston
Was there ever anyone more gifted than Whitney Houston? She had the face and voice of an angel. She had beauty, talent, and success including an unprecedented seven number one songs in a row and with Dolly Parton's song "I Will Always Love You" the biggest selling single by a female artist in hi
posted 9:22:32pm Feb. 11, 2012 |
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Trailer: Darling Companion
Kevin Kline, Diane Keaton, and Richard Jenkins star in the upcoming "Darling Companion," about a lost dog, coming in April.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYYoaspzzlg[/youtube]
posted 3:52:01pm Feb. 11, 2012 |
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Maps of Enchanted Places
The Awl has a wonderful illustrated story by Victoria Johnson featuring maps of the imaginary worlds of children's literature. The maps of The Phantom Tollbooth, The Princess Bride, Winnie the Pooh, The Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit, and more are as inviting as the stories that take place there. And
posted 8:00:36am Feb. 11, 2012 |
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Black Reel Awards Pay Tribute to "The Help"
It is an honor and a privilege to be invited to participate in one of my very favorite annual movie awards presentations, the Black Reel Awards, which pay tribute to the greatest achievements of the African-American community to the year in film. For 2011, we are proud to recognize the extraordina
posted 3:47:45pm Feb. 10, 2012 |
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posted November 10, 2008 at 11:53 pm
I agree most people would be better off if they read more, but government can only legislate so much of our lives, and parents can’t always watch kids every minute.
Kim j
posted November 11, 2008 at 7:02 am
Thanks, Kim. The best way to get kids to read is to have them see their parents enjoy reading and for their parents to enjoy reading to them. We read aloud to our kids every night until they were in high school and we still talk about those books with great fondness.