“In anything fit to be called by the name of reading, the process itself should be absorbing and voluptuous; we should gloat over a book, be rapt clean out of ourselves, and rise from the perusal, our mind filled with the busiest, kaleidoscopic dance of images, incapable of sleep or of continuous thought. The words, if the book be eloquent, should run thenceforward in our ears like the noise of breakers, and the story, if it be a story, repeat itself in a thousand coloured pictures to the eye.”~R.L. Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson, poet, novelist, essayist and travel writer, was born on November 13, 1850. I’m rather fond of his verse and of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, which I re-read a couple of years ago along with a freshman literature class I was teaching at the time. What do you know and enjoy of Stevenson’s work?
The Robert Louis Stevenson Website.
If you’re not familiar with and linking to and perusing the Saturday Review of Books here at Semicolon, you’re missing out. Here’s how it usually works. Find a review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week of a book you were reading or a book you’ve read. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can just write your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.
Then on Saturday, you post a link here at Semicolon in Mr. Linky to the specific post where you’ve written your book review. Don’t link to your main blog page because this kind of link makes it hard to find the book review, especially when people drop in later after you’ve added new content to your blog. In parentheses after your name, add the title of the book you’re reviewing. This addition will help people to find the reviews they’re most interested in reading.
After linking to your own reviews, you can spend as long as you want reading the reviews of other bloggers for the week and adding to your wishlist of books to read. That’s how my own TBR list has become completely unmanageable and the reason I can’t join any reading challenges. I have my own personal challenge that never ends.
Hi! Just linked to my review of C.S. Lewis’ fabulous book The Screwtape Letters.
I love A Child’s Garden of Verses — especially “Bed in Summer,” “The Land of Counterpane,” and “Swinging.” And I like Treasure Island.
Never read Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, but I remember being started by the Ingrid Bergman/Spencer Tracy movie version. It seemed more darkly realistic about human nature than I expected. I think it’s the only “bad guy” role I’ve ever seen Spencer Tracy play.
I was blown away when I read Jekyll and Hyde–much more interesting and well written than say other classics like Frankenstein and Dracula, IMO.
I’ve linked to my review of the Hunger Games trilogy. It’s a qualified one, so those who love it unreservedly might have some trouble with it. I enjoyed it, but…
Shari, something about the way your site is set up now makes it very hard to load on my computer–maybe the background image, or maybe it’s just to much data for my machine to load, but I was wondering if any other readers had similar struggles.
I just linked my review of Bullfinches Mythology.
I’m sure I’m coming in a little late with my Percy Jackson review, but I only heard of the series a few weeks ago. Probably there are a hundred other reviews here already that I could read, of these books. I will go looking now. Thank you for the opportunity!