MarysLibrary

Clothes

" . . . she was having a violent reaction against beautiful clothes and the slavery they impose on one, her experience being that once one had got them they took one in hand and gave one no peace until they had been everywhere and seen by everyone. You didn't take your clothes to parties, they took you. It was quite a mistake to think that a woman, a really well-dressed woman, wore out her clothes; it was the clothes that wore our the woman -- dragging her about at all hours of the day and night. No wonder men stayed young longer." -- Elizabeth von Arnim, The Enchanted April

What to Read When

The Washington Post has put together a list of books their reviewers recommend you read. According to your age. For example, they suggest The Very Hungry Caterpillar when you are a year old. Excellent choice.

When you are eight it's time to start on Harry Potter. Couldn't agree more.

And 12 is a good age to read a favorite of mine, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D Taylor.

But at 24 they recommend you read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, a book I recommend be read by nobody, ever. 

For ages 43 through 45 they hit the jackpot. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston for 43. I suggest you read it 25 years earlier. At age 44 the book is The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Again, earlier would be better. But they are exactly right to suggest Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple for 45. It was chosen a few years ago as the book for "Spokane Reads" and hundreds of us read it and loved it and laughed out loud.

Then skip to 73 when the list says it's time to read the entire The Years of Lyndon Johnson trilogy by Robert Caro. So far there are four volumes in the trilogy and another is yet to come. Age 78 seems just about right for Charlotte's Web. 

There are a dozen more that are my favorites and another dozen that deserve to be on no list whatever except perhaps the library's deaccession list. And many I haven't yet read but I mean to give them a try.

I love lists of books. The list is here.