Tag Archives: books
Tao Te Ching
The Tao Te Ching is one of the more easily understood of the Eastern texts, and I found a wonderful site that makes it available in several different translations: https://taoteching.org.uk/
Not every day.
Howard Stern Comes Again, ©2019, is a collection of transcripts of what Stern considers his best interviews over the last several years. The excerpt below with Paul McCartney is from January 14, 2009: Howard: I haven’t spoken to you since George Harrison died. How are you doing with that? That’s got to be major. Paul: …
Less Civil
This excerpt from Leo Rosten’s People I have loved, known, or admired, ©1970, recalls an episode he uncovered while researching George Washington’s life: But I cannot forget the episode involving Washington as he was being escorted down the street of a town in New York by an official. An old Negro saw the General and …
Restless, miserable, frustrated creatures
“We clutter the earth with our inventions, never dreaming that possibly they are unnecessary…or disadvantageous. We devise astounding means of communication, but do we communicate with one another? We move our bodies to and fro at incredible speeds, but do we really leave the spot we started from? Mentally, morally, spiritually, we are fettered. What …
Freddie
It’s hard to write a charming children’s fable about death, but Leo Buscaglia gave it his best effort. The Fall of Freddie the Leaf can be read online HERE. (Side note: the linked site does have some troubling, xenophobic aspects to it, mixed in with the more useful stories and content. So be aware.)
You Watch What I Tell You
Excerpted from The Seventh Child: A Lucky Life by Freddie Mae Baxter, edited by Gloria Bley Miller, ©1999: My mother was only forty-nine years old when she died. She wasn’t sick before she died– like you say somebody was sick a long time– unless she was hiding it. She wasn’t in bed where you had …
Of Course
“I wanted to write so that I would have something interesting to read, for while everything I read was quite good, some of it wonderful, I believed that I would write better, and so of course it turned out to be.” ~William Saroyan There are people in this world who suffer from low self-esteem. William …
Just Sitting and Being Alive
Excerpted from The Bicycle Rider in Beverly Hills, the autobiography of William Saroyan, © 1952: Water to an Armenian is a holy thing, like fire. A farmer watering his plants, trees, or vines is taking part in a rite which has profound meaning and satisfaction for him. The farmers of Fresno went to the headgates …
The anxiety and fear that was plainly showing
In this excerpt from his memoir The Bicycle Rider in Beverly Hills, William Saroyan relates a memory of his mother’s from when his family crossed the Atlantic to America, c. 1888: My mother also remembered an Assyrian woman on the boat from Havre to New York, in steerage. This woman helped my mother take care …
But He Is Also
Excerpted from The Bicycle Rider in Beverly Hills, the autobiography of Armenian writer William Saroyan, © 1952: It is necessary to remember and necessary to forget, but it is better for a writer to remember. It is necessary for him to live purposely, which is to say to live and to remember having done so. …
Morning Has Broken
Excerpted from The Bicycle Rider in Beverly Hills, the autobiography of William Saroyan, © 1952: Morning is best when it begins with the last hours of night. For years I have known midday mornings. There is something to be said for them. There is a quality of confusion and overlapping in them which is sometimes …
Diligent and Unprotesting
Excerpted from the essay The Oz Books by Gore Vidal, ©1976: Essentially, our educators are Puritans who want to uphold the Puritan work ethic. This is done by bringing up American children in such a way that they will take their place in society as diligent workers and unprotesting consumers. Any sort of literature that …
