“It is remarkable, the character of the pleasure we derive from the best books. They impress us with the conviction, that one nature wrote and the same reads… There is some awe mixed with the joy of our surprise, when this poet, who lived in some past world, two or three hundred years ago, says that which lies close to my own soul, that which I also had wellnigh thought and said.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Is there an author, dead or still living, that you perceive to be your “kindred spirit”? I think Madeleine L’Engle and I could have been friends, had we been born closer together in age. I also think I would have enjoyed knowing and conversing with the Bronte sisters, and perhaps Jane Austen. I would at least love to listen to these ladies as they talked with each other.
Welcome to the Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon. Here’s how it usually works. Find a book review on your blog posted sometime during the previous week. The review doesn’t have to be a formal sort of thing. You can link to your thoughts on a particular book, a few ideas inspired by reading the book, your evaluation, quotations, whatever.
Then on Friday night/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.
Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.
Linked to my review of Ros’ Irene Iddesleigh – possibly the worst novel ever published, I kid you not.
I’d have to think about kindred spirit writers from 100 years ago, but one that comes to mind from 300 years ago is Anne Bradstreet. She was primarily a poet, and her poems often “hit the nail on the head” for me, but she’s very readable and not obtuse. Christina Rosetti is another though she’s not as “homey” as Anne.
Have a great weekend Sherry.
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Number 18 is a duplicate post. Sorry!
Hope you’re feeling better!
Lovely quote this week. I’m sorry you’ve been under the weather. Hope you are better soon.
I’d love to have met Dorothy Dunnett and listen to her talk. She must have been brilliant. But I’d have been too intimidated to say much myself, so I don’t think we could be kindred spirits.
Feel better soon!
I changed my blog from Magistra Mater on Xanga to A Living Pencil on WordPress. It wasn’t near as difficult as I had imagined it would be.
You have been in my thoughts, Sherry. I hope you will be well soon. Happy Birthday to my fellow bibliophile. Thank you for contributing so much good stuff to the interwebs.
Hope your feeling better, thanks for hosting all these links!
I think my kindred spirit would be Charlotte Bronte–I felt so many jolts of recognition when I read Jane Eyre for the first time, when I was an adult, and it made me wish I’d read it so much earlier.
I’m finally caught up on my reviews; have been reading widely and fiendishly this summer!
Thanks for hosting, Sherry.