23 February 2009

The First Book

So, here we are at the end of the first book. The end of the March girls' childhood. It's something of a reflective moment. Initially these 2 books were published separately, so there was a great deal more meaning to Ms. Alcott's "So grouped, the curtain falls upon Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Whether it ever rises again, depends upon the reception given to the first act of the domestic drama called Little Women." I find myself feeling inclined to take a minute and look back on the book and ponder it a bit.

Susan Bauer talks about the importance of not only finding out the bare facts of the story, but asking yourself, "So, what?"

So, what? What about this book so far? I think it's clear that we both like the book. One thing we've both commented on a couple times in a couple different ways is that Little Women inspires us to do better, to be better. So the question I'm pondering right this minute is, "why?"



Also, we should probably think at least a little bit about what we want to read next.
Did you ever decide what to do about the Olive Tree?

8 comments:

misskate said...

I think that is very interesting that the two books were originally published separately. That definitely gives deeper meaning to her final sentence "..Whether it ever rises again, depends upon the reception give to the first act..."

MMmmmm.. to be honest, I'm not really that super interested in paying a ton for a book right now. Even one as cool as the "Allegory to the Olive Tree" sounds. Can we pick a different one?

Ritsumei said...

We can certainly pick another if you'd like. The Olive Tree book is available at both Amazon & B&N for about $30 for a new copy, but if that's too much then we can talk about other books. I've got a short list of possibilities (that you're welcome to add to) on the side bar, or we could read something else entirely different. I'll be starting Les Mis shortly, we could do that. Or there were a number of likely titles on that Facebook meme we both did. Lemmie know what you think.

Ritsumei said...

We could always look at Grimm's Fairytales. That could be entertaining!

misskate said...

Haha.. Grimm's Fairytales. Have you ever tried to read those? Some of them are very interesting, and some sort of end before they feel like they've really begun.
Though, reading and discussing in a the manner that we're doing these books could actually be interesting. I'd be willing to consider that.
I'm certain that The Olive Tree is good.. Really, I just feel like $30 for one book is rough business, ya know?

Another suggestion (just to make this decision process more crazy) what do you think about the book "1776" by David McCullough?
http://www.amazon.com/1776-David-McCullough/dp/0743226712

misskate said...

Wow.. leaving links is annoying.
http://www.amazon.com/1776-
David-McCullough/dp/0743226712

Ritsumei said...

1776 looks really interesting! I went & read the excerpt & stuff at Amazon (while my pictures were downloading) and I'm game.

misskate said...

Oooh.. that sounds like a consensus. We should go with it :)

Ritsumei said...

I've updated the "Current Book" section to reflect our consensus!