Monday, September 10, 2007

the girl who has some reading to do.


Madeline L'Engle is dead.


I loved and still read on occasion her Time series. Just last month my Mom came to visit me and while looking for a book for my chapter reading son, I found "An Acceptable Time" the last in the Time series that I never knew it existed!

I think my preference of that series would be:

1. A Wrinkle in Time
2. Many Waters
3. A Wind in the Door
4. A Swiftly Tilting Planet
5. An Acceptable Time

Although "Wrinkle" is the ultimate manifesto of "Be yourself, even if it goes against the crowd and won't make you fit in or be popular," "Many Waters" is a close second in popularity for me. It's actually the fourth in the series, but probably the second in terms of amount of times I've read it. Hell, it might be the first, but "Wrinkle" should hold the top honor since it got me into the series.

A big thanks to Mom too. She bought me my yellow covered Dell paperback before a roadtrip. It mysteriously sprouted what I think was Mylanta stains at some point, and still has them. Yes, I still have that copy of the book. It is one of the ones I have saved for my kids along with the Chronicles of Narnia and the Chronicals of Prydain.

It seems odd that I just now discovered the connection between the Murray's and the Austins. I read some of the Austins books but only "A Ring of Endless Light" appealed to me. And now, 15-20 years later, all I can remember is that I liked the poem in it and it had dolphins.

From "The World" by Henry Vaughan

I saw Eternity the other night
Like a great Ring of pure and endless light,
All calm as it was bright ;
And round beneath it, Time, in hours, days, years,
Driven by the spheres,
Like a vast shadow moved, in which the world
And all her train were hurled.

I remember this poem just spoke to me. And now I need to remember why.


Thank you Mom for making me love reading (even if buying books for a kid who get carsick reading was maybe not the smartest thing, but it made nights in the hotel along the way bearable.) and Thank You Miss L'Engle for writing such good books.

I have some reading to do.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Ahhh... yummy books. I was partial to the Little House series. I read the entire series over one Spring Break. 'Cause I was cool like that.

xoxoxo
Hope you're feeling better sweetie!