It will be discouraging to some and consoling to others to realize that very little of our growth as readers can be planned. It is certainly possible to read the 189 books Charles Van Doren associates with The Joy of Reading, the 173 indispensables that he and Mortimer Adler list at the end of How to Read a Book, and most certainly the sixteen texts that Michael Dirda says will open the world of literature to you--but it is not possible to acquire by force of will the enjoyment of all of them, or any. The 'self-conquest' Auden recommends will always be achieved, when it is achieved at all, by hook or by crook, unmethodically, unpredictably. We must consent to be guided by the invisible hand of serendipity. Alan Jacobs
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A wee explanation: this website was created as a way to amplify the daily surprise of seeing glory in one small life. The notebook entries represented here are all selected from things actually lived and noted on paper in an effort to live the full life British educator Charlotte Mason so ably championed.
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Book Of Centuries
Book Of Firsts
Church Year
Commonplace
Copywork
Enquire Within
Fortitude Journal
Gratitude Journal
Keeping
Music Notebook
Nature Notebook
Notebooks
Picture File
Poetry
Prayer Journal
Recipes