If you’re interested in reading about the building, here’s a page on it that shows how it looked prior to the “restoration”, as well as a photo of the Kirkpatrick mansion.

It’s technically possible, but highly improbable that I finish anything else tonight and tomorrow, so let’s wrap this month up. (Edit: I was wrong. Finished Anxious Generation at lunch.) October was crazy busy with school work, so much so that when the professor sent out a mid-semester survey she was evidently overwhelmed by “PLEASE MAKE IT STOP” feedback and retooled a few of our assignments. Most of my reading tended toward the casual, then, with a nod toward ‘spooky season’ in the form of books about obituaries and cemeteries. I made no progress toward any of my standing challenges, but academia comes first given how much money I’m spending on it. The highlight of the month, of course, was visiting two others at the Resisting the Machine event in Birmingham, and seeing the amazing variety of interesting books on display. Although I’m going to be spending November working on a big grad school project due in December (….planning eight library programs, producing flyers, and researching budgets) I knocked out some minor assignments earlier in the semester so I should have more time now for reading.

Favorite Highlight/Quote:

We humans are like fish dwelling at the bottom of a pond. We perceive the sun’s light filtered imperfectly to the depths. […] The higher we rise, the more clearly we see. The beauty shining through great art — painting, poetry, sculpture, dance, music, architecture, and so forth — calls us out of the depths of our spiritual slumber and up toward the pure light.” (Living in Wonder)

New Acquisitions:
Living in Wonder, Rod Dreher. Preordered months ago, but I bought the hardback to get signed & cancelled the Kindle preorder.
The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis, Jason Baxter. Met the author at the Dreher-Kingsnorth event and decided to go ahead and go for it.
The Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien. Friend picked this up at an estate sale and gave it to me.
Greenlights, Matthew McConaughey. Friend picked this up it a thrift store and gave it to me.
The C.S. Lewis Collection: Signature Classics. Eleven of his works in a $3 ebook? Count me in! I’ve read most of them (save for Letters to Malcolm and Reflections on the Psalms) and have half of them in physical form, but it’s always nice to be able to carry around Jack in my pocket.

Pending Reviews
Still trying to get my head around Living in Wonder. Just finished Anxious Generation.

Coming up….

Although I did a ‘SF Sweep’ in September, Vero @ Dark Shelf of Wonders alerted me to a bookish event in November called SciFi Month. I figured I’d throw in with it, since it’s not as if I’ll run out of SF to read any time soon! If you’re interested in participating, click the banner to find the hosts at Always Room for One More, BookForager, Dear Geek Place, and a Dance with Books. Preview of what is coming up will follow on November 1st.

Also, one of the two booktubers I follow, Olive (the other being Marian of Classics Considered), is hosting Nonfiction November for the final time, and given that finality I’d like to participate in that as well, with an eye toward restoring Nonfiction to its proper place on the reading throne after so long a fictional usurpation. That won’t happen, but maybe by December they can reach parity. Does this goal directly contradict the focus on science fiction? Absolutely. Guess we’ll just have to see what happens.