Reading and Writing Quotations

https://en.wikipedia.org

“Read a lot. Reading really helps. Read anything you can get your hands on.” J. K. Rowling

“I always advise children who ask me for tips on being a writer to read as much as they possibly can. Jane Austen gave a young friend the same advice, so I’m in good company there.” J. K. Rowling

https://en.wikipedia.org

“Believe in yourself. Keep writing.” Neil Gaiman

“Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you’ve never been. Once you’ve visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. Discontent is a good thing: discontented people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different.” Neil Gaiman

https://en.wikipedia.org

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” Ray Bradbury

“You must write every single day of your life… You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads… may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”

Ray Bradbury

LIBRARIES OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY, PA: LINDERMAN LIBRARY AT LEHIGH UNIVERSITY

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I mentioned a little over a week ago that I was beginning a new series on libraries of the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, and I am this is the second entry in that series. My piece will feature the beautiful Linderman Library of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA.

Linderman Library is the humanities library, and it is my favorite place on campus. I earned my M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature at Lehigh University, and this extraordinary abode of books is a comforting and inspiring place to work. I have spent many hours doing research and writing in this safe haven for book people.

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Linderman Library has many places to work, including a long reading room, which feels like something out of Hogwarts from the Harry Potter books, many nooks with desks, and one of the best features of the library–the rotunda. Several levels of books fill the outside circle, and a winding metal staircase goes from the first to the third floor.

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One of the most beautiful features that is often missed is the dome that caps the rotunda. It is one of striking beauty, and made of stained glass. If you have the opportunity to visit Lehigh University, you should go to Linderman Library, visit the rotunda, and look up at the dome!

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I am fortunate to live in an area with so many libraries, and I was doubly fortunate to attend a University with a humanities library that is not only filled with thousands of volumes of books and journals, but also it is beautiful. The very nature of its architecture encourages students to study in its comfortable environment.

I will continue this series on libraries and bookstores in the Lehigh Valley, PA soon.

I will also shortly begin a series on bookstores in the Lehigh Valley, PA.

Quotations On Libraries

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(https://en.wikipedia.org)

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”

Jose Luis Borges

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(https://pixabay.com)

“The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.”

Albert Einstein

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(www.wikipedia.org)

“A library is a place where you can live a thousand lives. So why are you waiting when you could be living? Visit your library today.”

Stephen King

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“Libraries are the democratization of knowledge. With only the need for a library card, anyone can access the information of the world.”

Charles F. French

CFFC: Legs and Feet

Please enjoy these wonderful photographs from Roberta Eaton Cheadle!

This week’s photographic topic is legs and feet. You can join in here: https://ceenphotography.com/2023/01/24/cffc-legs-and-feet/

I hope you enjoy my contributions. Some are photographs from our most recent trip to the bush and some our pictures of my fondant creations.

The beastifying effect of working from home in a work shirt, shorts and slippers

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A Thank You To All Writers and Creative People!

I simply wanted to offer a thank you to all the writers and creative people out there for your work! Your creations speak to the hopes, dreams, fears, lives, experiences, and imagination of humanity. You make the world a much better place, and I, for one, appreciate what you do.

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(www.pixabay.com

International Holocaust Remembrance Day- Never Forget

Please read this extremely important post.

Envisioning The American Dream

To those deniers of the Holocaust:

There is no denying that these members of my husband Hershel’s family lives were taken too early.

My husband’s family in Poland before the Holocaust

There is no denying that none of them would ever enjoy growing old to delight in the joy of a grandchild.

My husband Hershel in a displacement Persons Camp 1946 Germany

There is no denying this little boy would be born homeless, live in a displaced persons camp, never knowing the love of a grandparent. An uncle. An aunt.

My husband’s mother’s sister and her baby only months before both were killed by the Nazis. Poland

There is no denying this little baby heinously ripped from its mother’s arms and thrown in front of a moving train was the action of pure hate.

There is no denying there existed something so evil in this world there was hate so…

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E.B. White

Please enjoy this wonderful post from the excellent teacher, Jennie!

A Teacher's Reflections

E.B. White’s thoughts always go through me like a Fourth of July sparkler. He has a way with words, and he ‘knows’. His wisdom is as remarkable as his writing. He was the observer, the one who paid attention and noticed everything. He never wanted to be in the limelight. When I heard his voice recording of Charlotte’s Web, I was shocked. I said to his grandniece, “I don’t read the book that way at all.” She smiled and understood, then she told me a story:

“Uncle Andy (that was E.B.’s nickname) adored his wife. She was a strong woman,” said Lindsay. “She was older than he was, eleven years older. He adored her. His mother was a strong woman, too. She was much older when Andy was born.”

“Do you know it took him seventeen takes to read the final chapter, The Last Day? Seventeen. He couldn’t stop crying…

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Libraries Of The Lehigh Valley, PA

I began this series several years ago, but I must have forgotten about it. Now, however, I intend to continue and share the wonderful libraries that exist with this section of Eastern Pennsylvania.

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The Easton Public Library, located in the small city of Easton, PA, is a place that I loved as a youngster. I have been an avid reader since I was a small child, and this wonderful place gave me much solace and pleasure. When I was very small, we went to a branch library on South Side, Easton, and when I hit young teen years, I would walk the couple of miles to go to the library. It was worth every step.

(georgefattell.blog)

Easton has about 25,000-27,000 people and is located on the banks of both the Delaware and the Lehigh Rivers, and it is the smallest of the cities that make up the majority of the Lehigh Valley, PA. It is in this small urban area that the Easton Public Library sits and serves a wide group of readers.

After many years, I recently visited this library with a friend who was doing research, and I was filled with both nostalgia and joy upon entering. It was hard to believe that I had not been into this place, where I had visited almost weekly for several years. I loved the visit, and while I do not know if You Can’t Go Home Again as suggested in the book by Thomas Wolfe, but I do know that you can return to libraries that you have loved!

I want to thank Sharon Gothard, a wonderful librarian, for her help with these images of the library, including pictures from both the present and the past.

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Thank you for joining me in this journey to a place that was deeply important to me as a young person. I will continue the series soon with another library from this area.

A Story of Bravery – The Piano, and the Pianist, and Me

Please enjoy this wonderful post from the excellent teacher, Jennie!

A Teacher's Reflections

The scene:
It’s the holiday party for teachers and staff. We’re at the lovely home of a fellow teacher, who is an accomplished pianist. Actually, that’s an understatement.

Everyone is in the kitchen, eating and laughing. The big family room is right off of the kitchen, up three stairs. Huge decorated Christmas tree, fireplace, and… a 6 foot, 1 inch Yamaha grand piano. Yes, grand.

Big.

Black.

The do-not-touch kind of piano.

What I did:
I kept staring. I whispered to a few fellow teachers about going up the stairs and maybe playing a few notes on the piano.

If looks could kill. They were shocked.

I had to be brave. Alone brave. I went to the piano and played the one and only song I could do- Heart and Soul. I played the bottom half of the song, with all the chords. Everyone was staring at me…

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Please Honor Martin Luther King Jr Day–2023

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Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and I would like to offer a few of this extraordinary American’s quotations as a tribute to him. He was one of the finest, most decent, and empathetic people in the history of the United States of America. We should all remember him and honor his teaching, his legacy, and his call for justice for everyone.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

The Beginning of 2023 Self-Promotion Party!

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I thought it would be interesting to do a book promotion party by giving not only the name of your book and what it is about but also a quotation from your book, from anywhere in the text.

I offer the following from Maledicus: The Investigative Paranormal Society Book 1 by Charles F. French, which is as much a love story as it is a horror novel:

“As he did every morning, Roosevelt woke up and reached for Sarah, only to be dismayed when he realized she wasn’t there, that she was, indeed, gone, and he would have to make it through another day without her. That was the worst part of every day, having to face another waking period without Sarah” (18).

So, if you would like to join the party and promote your book, please offer a quotation!

Have fun, promote your book, and please share this post.

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