Several of Francis Bacon’s Essays are scheduled in Ambleside Online Year 8, and the one for this week was his well-known and oft-quoted, Of Studies. The most famous is the “Some books are to be tasted…” passage, but I wanted to share the sentence that immediately precedes it today:
On the Center for Lit podcasts, the Andrews have been discussing how we should approach books with the intent to listen to the author before we pass judgment (I think they also quoted from this essay in one of the episodes). They have certainly been challenging my somewhat squeamish tastes in reading with some of their suggestions! But I think the point that they and Bacon make is an important one. We should not be coming to a book already resolved to disagree with the author (“confute” means to prove someone or something wrong). Nor should we come naively believing what it says because it’s been written or approved by the right sort of people. And wanting to appear cool or knowledgeable, or reading it just because “everyone else” is, are also bad reasons to pick up a book (count me guilty of that!). We must come humbly, ready to have our assumptions challenged, and prepared to change if necessary. And of course we must compare what it says to God’s infallible Word.
Also read this week:
- Hubby: almost done Napoleon’s Buttons by Penney Le Couteur and Jay Burreson
- Me: Reclaiming Conversation by Sherry Turkle (which I wrote about last week)
- Miss A: Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel (one of her new AO books this term)
- Mr. D: Volume 1 of The Complete Peanuts by Charles Schulz (a re-read from the library) 🙂
- Mr. E: Secrets of the Woods by William J. Long (an AO book)
- Little L: ‘Baby Listens’ and ‘Baby Looks’ from the lovely Eloise Wilken Stories
- Little R: Go Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman
Wednesdays with Words is hosted by ladydusk.
I, too, have been loving the Center For Lit podcast and they are making me thinking about how I read.
The picture isn’t loading for me so I can’t read the quote. I saw it was on your FB page, so I’ll look there <3
Anna, I’m very far behind on reading some mail and ran across this blog entry a little bit ago. This is just excellent, and I love the Bacon quote. It’s going in my commonplace book. I have only had time to listen to a couple of podcasts from the center for lit, but I have really enjoyed the ones I’ve heard, and I hope to catch up soon. Thank you so much for writing this blog. It has given me food for contemplation.