Keep Three Books Going

Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The habit of grown-ups reading "living" books and retaining the power to digest them will be lost if we refuse to give a little time to Mother Culture. A wise woman--an admired mother and wife--when asked how, with her weak physical health and many demands upon her time, she managed to read so much, said, "Besides my Bible, I always keep three books going that are just for me--a stiff book, a moderately easy book, and a novel, and I always take up the one I feel fit for." That is the secret: always have something "going" to grow by. (pg 346)

This idea has gotten a little out of hand lately. My currently reading pile includes:

Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope

Six Books of Euclid by Euclid

How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig






A History Of The English Speaking Peoples, Volume 2: The New World by Winston S. Churchill

How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler

Cabinet of Curiosities: Collecting and Understanding the Wonders of the Natural World by Gordon Grice

Westward Ho! ot The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight by Charles Kingsley

Northanger Abbey: An Annotated Edition by Jane Austen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I'm re-reading this for a book discussion group.


By my calculations, there are three stiff books with the rest being either novels or very light reading. Not surprisingly, the stiff books are taking me much longer to get through. That's probably because "I always take up the one I feel fit for."