That\u2019s why you\u2019ll stay, I hope. I read books like a fat kid eats donuts (voraciously and with a lot of sprinkles), but most people I know feel there\u2019s no time to read \u2013 I\u2019d like to prove them wrong. There is nothing more important than making time for reading. As Confucius said (this guy knew everything), \u201cNo matter how busy you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.\u201d This is even more relevant today, when the pace of current events seems too fast to linger on dusty fiction or topics not directly connected to the workplace. I\u2019d like to prove that there is never a more important time to stop and read than when things seem too busy to do just that. Novels, tomes, compendiums, essays, opi (how many people have ever tried to pluralize \u201copus?\u201d); There\u2019s a whole world of books waiting to teach us. Of course, there are crappy ones too, but we\u2019ll take this one issue at a time.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
That\u2019s my part, but do you know yours? Here it is: Read this blog once a week. Each time (if you\u2019re diligent but not impatient) you\u2019ll find another book, and you\u2019ll learn exactly why you should be reading
that<\/i> book today. You could call it literacy advocacy, but I call it fun. Repeat: IT IS FUN TO READ THESE BOOKS! Even if they didn\u2019t<\/i> have important lessons to teach us about ourselves and the world around us, quality books sharpen the mind and fill you with questions, and there\u2019s no better feeling in the world than to have a whole lot of questions, except maybe to have a whole lot of questions and find out that other people have those same questions. A community of curiosity (copyright me) is destined for intellectual greatness, like the Platonic Academy or Aristotle\u2019s Lyceum. And what better place than a self-founded community of curiosity to perform that sacred ritual of a person just closing the last pages of a great book: run out and require everyone to read it!<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Greek word \u201cpolymathes,\u201d or \u201cpolymath\u201d in English, is the formal term for a person whose expertise or interests span a wide range. Literally, it means \u201c
having learned much<\/i>,\u201d which seems like a good phrase to mutilate in search of a blog name. Since I don\u2019t speak Greek, I\u2019ll have to adapt the English interpretation \u2013 I\u2019m thinking \u201cHaving Wondered Much<\/i>.\u201d It seems right for that question cumulus cloud we\u2019re supposed to find our heads in when we finish a good book. <\/span>Strong name, right? Sounds to me like it could be the name of a book (circles within circles)!<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
So. We\u2019ve got a name, we\u2019ve got a plan, and we have a very compelling reason to read this blog (it will force you to look for new meaning in old words). You\u2019ve got a writer whose hesitance to draw attention to himself is alleviated by this whole Internet business, and I\u2019ve got readers who will (presumably) only bother coming back if they\u2019re interested in the old words about which I have new ones. We also have an abundance of old words (tomes, novels, compilations, etc.), those things are all over the place. The only thing left is to get moving \u2013 we\u2019ll need something along the lines of Doctor Frankenstein\u2019s lightning to
zap<\/i> the blog to life.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Or we could just go. Hope to see you by the back cover of this story!<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We read to know we\u2019re not alone. \u2013C.S. Lewis That\u2019s why I\u2019m going to blog. I can\u2019t pretend that I have subject matter expertise currently absent from t… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":950,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/950"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":823,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}