recent reads
September 6, 2008
I will return to the regularly-scheduled program of writing artsy-descriptive blogs sometime soon. In the meantime, I’ll share the reading list from the past few months. Pete and I chose not to have a TV in our house the first year of marriage (plus we’re saving on cable costs!). Do I miss it? Yeah, I miss having background noise or a mindless activity to do. But I’ve read a bunch in the last two to three (The Great Divorce, all books in the Chronicles of Narnia Series, The Screwtape Letters, Velvet Elvis, and Good News About Injustice), we have watched many films, we invested in the first four seasons of ‘The Office’–knowing we’d appreciate the humor, and we even took up backgammon, which is far more than a retired-person’s game. 
I do try to stay connected, as I miss having the news to let me know what’s going on in my old country. I used to read CNN.com, but in the recent past, it has seemed to turn into a smeary smutty mess only interested in shock and slander. I find the New York Times website much less scandalous and perhaps, just a smidgin more ‘objective’, if that can even be possible anymore.
I happened upon the etiquette column–well, more like the ‘how to deal with an awkward situation’ column on the Style page on NYT.com, and found the delightful (and not so subtly-sarcastic) piece of advice written by Philip Galanes, who writes the ‘Social Q’s’ column.
And the Guest Wore Red
Is it still frowned upon to wear red at a wedding? I have heard both yes and no, and really don’t want to offend.
Milan Tainan, Manhattan
“As long as it is not a wedding-slash-bullfight, you should be fine.”
read more here
be aware that some of the suggestions are down-right mean, though (and some of the addressed situations overly awkward).
Who needs TV, anyway?
Based on the amount of C. S. Lewis on your reading list… have you read his essay “The Weight of Glory”? You should.
http://www.doxaweb.com/assets/doxa.pdf
It looks as though that same site might have a blog to discuss it too…
There’s a quote in there that I saw quoted elsewhere that I truly love – it’s even more glorious within its context. “If God is satisfied with the work, the work may be satisfied with itself.” *deep sigh of relief* Really.
Glad to know about the NYT. Since we don’t have television in our house, I’ve been getting most of my news online. I had similar thoughts about CNN’s site. I had heard from some conservative relatives that Fox News had much more “balanced” reporting, but it just had as much of a right-wing slant as CNN had a left-wing slant, and I’m not interested in playing partisan. Plus, Fox has headlines written like a tabloid, the kind that make you shake your head and wonder what the world is coming to. I don’t need that. So all that to say, I’ll check out the NYT site. Thanks for the suggestion.
And kudos on reading more. It’s been the same for us. The house we moved into is full of bookshelves stocked with books, some of the same ones you’ve mentioned.
How funny, too, the one program we’ve watched consistently has been The Office online with Netflix. We weren’t really into it before, but we started from the beginning and it’s pretty darn funny.