Watching the Rostovs packing, unpacking, repacking was exhausting. Circumstances caused my wife and I to go through to major moves in recent years and in each case significant downsizing was involved. For me, the last move was also connected with my forced retirement for medical reasons. This added to the feeling of leaving behind or giving away or selling so much of the “stuff” we had accumulated over the years. We ended up keeping about one third of our physical possessions in each move. The hardest thing personally for me was to donate most of my books. On a more internal level, I gave up much of my past occupations and beliefs. For example, I am no longer “Doctor” Slater any more, just “Mister” Slater and I like it that way. I think it is also a good idea to assess one’s beliefs from time to time. I learned in doing this that beliefs are not necessarily truths. A very important distinction indeed!
“When Berg is confused by her intense gaze, I feel like he is looking at the heart and soul of War and Peace, at something he cannot understand.” Love this, Simon. Thanks for another great week of reading together. Nifty bit of work/life balance on your part. Thank you for sharing images from your family holiday.
I finally caught up after falling behind in July! Nice side effect of falling behind is that I got to read some of the events happening "on this day" 212 years ago.
As I read this week, Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" kept coming to mind. As this book teaches me more about the war of 1812 than I have ever known, the beauty of Tchaikovsky's overture, battling Russian and French music into a frenzy, becomes even more poignant. More info on the composition and structure of the overture: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_Overture
Thank you Simon for another great round up and I loved that painting. I found myself frustrated that Natasha wasn't told about Andrei, will there be regrets regarding that? The refugee mention at the start has left pictures in my head of what is happening now and I guess it is just as scary for the people that have as the people that don't. In the end it is likely everyone will have nothing.
Watching the Rostovs packing, unpacking, repacking was exhausting. Circumstances caused my wife and I to go through to major moves in recent years and in each case significant downsizing was involved. For me, the last move was also connected with my forced retirement for medical reasons. This added to the feeling of leaving behind or giving away or selling so much of the “stuff” we had accumulated over the years. We ended up keeping about one third of our physical possessions in each move. The hardest thing personally for me was to donate most of my books. On a more internal level, I gave up much of my past occupations and beliefs. For example, I am no longer “Doctor” Slater any more, just “Mister” Slater and I like it that way. I think it is also a good idea to assess one’s beliefs from time to time. I learned in doing this that beliefs are not necessarily truths. A very important distinction indeed!
“When Berg is confused by her intense gaze, I feel like he is looking at the heart and soul of War and Peace, at something he cannot understand.” Love this, Simon. Thanks for another great week of reading together. Nifty bit of work/life balance on your part. Thank you for sharing images from your family holiday.
Thanks! August was always going to be a bit tricky... thank you for everyone's patience!
I finally caught up after falling behind in July! Nice side effect of falling behind is that I got to read some of the events happening "on this day" 212 years ago.
As I read this week, Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" kept coming to mind. As this book teaches me more about the war of 1812 than I have ever known, the beauty of Tchaikovsky's overture, battling Russian and French music into a frenzy, becomes even more poignant. More info on the composition and structure of the overture: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_Overture
I'm not following the W&P readalong this year but I had to click on this one because that painting of Moscow!
I know! Love this painting.
Thanks again for the summary and your thoughts, Simon! The highlight of my week 🥰
Thank you Simon for another great round up and I loved that painting. I found myself frustrated that Natasha wasn't told about Andrei, will there be regrets regarding that? The refugee mention at the start has left pictures in my head of what is happening now and I guess it is just as scary for the people that have as the people that don't. In the end it is likely everyone will have nothing.