Welcome to the art of curiosity; my personal amble through the worlds of art, crafts, books & all manner of other curiosities. You'll find examples of my jewellery & art work plus an account of how I'm attempting to confound depression & my bipolarity by pursuing my creativity. There's a lot of whimsy too; my mind set is distinctly frivolous at times!

So, Dear Reader, won't you join me on my journey?

Sunday 22 July 2007

First Post of the Day

We all have blind spots. Whoops - there I go again making assumptions for which I can offer no evidence. Back in the days of educational yore, I would have been 'slapped down' for my posit. Please allow me to re-write my opening sentence.

In my experience, most of us have blind spots. I have one about the writers Thomas Keneally ( Schindler's Ark') & William Styron ( 'Sophie's Choice'). Sometimes I mix their work up but worst of all, I occasionally morph them into one writer!!

I'm telling you this because I've just been listening to Thomas Keneally being interviewed on 'Desert Island Discs'. ( BBC Radio 4 is one of our national treasures & it's quite literally in the background of my life because I listen to it all day, every day.) Aha, I thought, he'll talk about 'Darkness Visible'. It took about 30 seconds before the light dawned & I realised that, once again, I'd mixed them up.

'Darkness Visible' by William Styron & not Thomas Keneally is a window which looks into the experience of depression. I'm certain that I'm responsible for a fair sized slice of royalites because I buy a copy of this book, lend it to a friend & never see it back again. This is one of those books that I'm delighted to lend on a permanent basis. It's a bell that rings true - it's a bell that sings out loud.

My copy is packed away ( the bulk of my library is packed away whilst our house is being torn into shreds & as I live with a man who boasts that the only non-fiction book he's read is 'Lord of the Rings', I do get rather acerbic when I try to explain that, frankly yes, I do need to refer to such & such book) so I'm going to buy another copy because I want to read it again.

It's a joy to find a book that one can read over & over - one that will be a legend for the amount of copies which are borrowed on a permanent basis. Such a book is 'Just this Side of Normal - Glimpses into Life with Autism' by Elizabeth King Gerlach. It's wonderful - so pure & beautiful. I'm going to order at least 10 copies!

Elizabeth - thank you :-)

1 comment:

Jean Katherine Baldridge said...

both those books, totally different but equally as inspiring, are excellent excellent books. I commend your taste!