Not just book chat! The Literary Life Podcast is an ongoing conversation about the skill and art of reading well and the lost intellectual tradition needed to fully enter into the great works of literature. Experienced teachers Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks (of www.HouseOfHumaneLetters.com) join lifelong reader Cindy Rollins (of www.MorningtimeForMoms.com) for slow reads of classic literature, conversations with book lovers, and an ever-unfolding discussion of how Stories Will Save the World. And check out our sister podcast The Well Read Poem with poet Thomas Banks.
Episode 232: “Harry Potter” Book 1, Introduction and Ch. 1-2
On today’s episode on The Literary Life podcast, we begin our much-anticipated series on Harry Potter: Book 1 by J. K. Rowling, with hosts Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks. After sharing a little on their own backgrounds as teachers and their commonplace quotations for the week, Angelina and Thomas open the book discussion with some introductory information on this book and series. They address the controversy surrounding these books in Christian circles. For our previous episode on magic, listen to our Best of Series Episode 168: Wizards, Witches and Magic, Oh My! Angelina sets up this series with some background on children’s publishing in the 1990s, the why there are differences in the British and American editions, the basis for this book in the classic literary tradition, the form and structure of stories. They also share some thoughts on these first couple of chapters. Join us again next week for chapters 3-7! Visit HouseofHumaneLetters.com for updates on classes with Angelina, Thomas, and other members of their teaching team. Commonplace Quotes: To what extent people draw their ideas from fiction is disputable. Personally, I believe that most people are influenced far more than they would care to admit by novels, serial stories, films, and so forth, and that from this point of view, the worst books are often the most important. George Orwell, in “Boys’ Weeklies“ Do you think I am trying to weave a spell? Perhaps I am, but remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as inducing them, and you and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness that has been laid upon us for nearly a hundred years. C. S. Lewis, from “The Weight of Glory“ A Selection from “A School Song” By Rudyard Kipling 'Let us now praise famous men' - Men of little showing - For their work continueth, And their work continueth, Broad and deep continueth, Greater than their knowing!And we all praise famous men - Ancients of the College;For they taught us common sense - Tried to teach us common sense Truth and God's Own Common Sense, Which is more than knowledge! Book List: Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith The Giver by Lois Lowry Holes by Louis Sachar The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes Stalky and Co. by Rudyard Kipling The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien Support The Literary Life: Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the “Friends and Fellows Community” on Patreon, and get some amazing bonus content! Thanks for your support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let’s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB
7/9/2024 • 1 hour, 30 minutes, 49 seconds
Episode 153: Our Literary Lives of 2022
On The Literary Life podcast today, our hosts look back on their reading lives over the past year. Angelina, Cindy and Thomas each share a commonplace quote, then they each share a little about how they approach reading in a way that fits with the demands of their busy lives. Each of our hosts talks about their literary surprises, their most outstanding reads of the year, disappointing books they read, and their personal favorite podcast books from 2022. Angelina also reiterates why reading rightly is so important to us all! Don’t forget to join us for the 2023 Reading Challenge! Get your books and Bingo cards ready! Commonplace Quotes: A good story isn’t told to make a point. A good story reflects the World God created. The point makes itself. Timothy Rollins “Blessed be Pain and Torment and every torture of the Body … Blessed be Plague and Pestilence and the Illness of Nations…. “Blessed be all Loss and the Failure of Friends and the Sacrifice of Love…. “Blessed be the Destruction of all Possessions, the Ruin of all Property, Fine Cities, and Great Palaces…. “Blessed be the Disappointment of all Ambitions…. “Blessed be all Failure and the ruin of every Earthly Hope…. “Blessed be all Sorrows, Torments, Hardships, Endurances that demand Courage…. “Blessed be these things–for of these things cometh the making of a Man….” Hugh Walpole I will not walk with your progressive apes, erect and sapient. Before them gapes the dark abyss to which their progress tends – if by God’s mercy progress ever ends, and does not ceaselessly revolve the same unfruitful course with changing of a name. I will not treat your dusty path and flat, denoting this and that by this and chat, your world immutable wherein no part the little maker has with maker’s art. I bow not yet before the Iron Crown, nor cast my own small golden sceptre down. J. R. R. Tolkien, from “Mythopoeia” A Selection from “The Secular Masque” by John Dryden All, all of a piece throughout; Thy chase had a beast in view; Thy wars brought nothing about; Thy lovers were all untrue. 'Tis well an old age is out, And time to begin a new. Book and Link List: Episode 60: Why Read Pagan Myths Episode 124: The Abolition of Man (beginning of series) Fortitude by Hugh Walpole The Killer and the Slain by Hugh Walpole The Old Ladies by Hugh Walpole Cherringham Mystery Series by Matthew Costello and Neil Richards The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer The Golden Age of Murder by Martin Edwards Anthony Berkeley Ronald Knox Rex Stout Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey Light Thickens by Ngaio Marsh Henry the Eighth by Beatrice Saunders The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott Hard Times by Charles Dickens Captive Flames by Ronald Knox The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin The Most Reluctant Convert by David C. Downing The Truth and Beauty by Andrew Klavan The Man Who Knew Too Much by G. K. Chesterton The Rosettis in Wonderland by Dinah Roe Just Passing Through by Winton Porter The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories ed. by Martin Edwards The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories by P. D. James Edmund Crispin Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley Dorothy L. Sayers by Colin Duriez The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis The Wood Beyond the World by William Morris The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis by Jason Baxter Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh I Live Under a Black Sun by Edith Sitwell The Dwarf by Par Lagerkvist You Are Not Your Own by Alan Noble Dune by Frank Herbert The Twist of the Knife by Anthony Horowitz The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley (not recommended) The Witness of the Stars by E. W. Bullinger (not recommended) The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim Dracula by Bram Stoker The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis Support The Literary Life: Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the “Friends and Fellows Community” on Patreon, and get some amazing bonus content! Thanks for your support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy’s own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let’s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB
