September Selections and Update

Beginning in September I am starting a second unit of clinical pastoral education (CPE) at the Ottawa Hospital - Civic campus.

Between this programme, work, and my other commitments, greater limits shall be set upon my time to read and write for The Marginal Virtues.

For the next three months, then, I will be choosing only one book from the 'back burner' to read and write a marginal commentary for. In December I'll choose two more books from the 'back burner', and, starting in the new year, shall once again ask for new recommendations.

So, without further ado, here is the selection for September!

Dune, by Frank Herbert.

Congratulations to Matt for his recommendation having been selected. I'm looking forward to reading Dune, which is widely regarded as a classic of the science-fiction genre.

Update: Change in Format

Based on feedback from one of my readers, I am going to be revising the format of my marginal commentaries.

The new look will be established upon the posting of my next marginal commentary. It should make the marginal commentaries easier to read.

The changes will be retroactively applied to my older posts as time allows.

Update: Spring Hiatus

I'm sure blogs are like academia - it's publish or perish!

Well, The Marginal Virtues has been on life support, so to speak, for a while; or at least that's how it's felt.

Not being a well-organised person, it is difficult, when I fall behind on managing other things, to continue writing for this blog.

I intend to continue.

In light of the changes Google has made to the format of the blog, I may follow suit and change its look; we'll see.

To make my life a little easier, I'm not going to follow through with the recommendations made for April. Sorry, folks. Thank you very much, sorry to disappoint!

Starting in August, I'll start selecting books from the back burner to read, and go through October from those for books recommended by readers. Next month, I'm going to catch up on a couple of books I've been working through, including the final book outstanding among reader recommendations.

I'm also going to publish blog posts much more frequently that will consist of much smaller content.

Keep your eyes peeled for new stuff, and thanks for your patience!

February Update

I am working away on the marginal commentaries for The Glass Castle and The China Study, so keep your eyes peeled.

I have a few other posts on the go, and between that and the fact that it is now February, I won't be canvassing for recommendations for this month, because it won't be 'til the end of February that I'd be likely to get my hands on the books selected, let alone read them and write commentaries on them. I have trouble enough finishing the commentaries for the books selected for any given month as it is (e.g., it is now February and I haven't yet finished two commentaries for books I meant to publish posts on in December).

By mid-month I will be looking for recommendations for March, but I very likely will be changing, at least for the time being, how many reader recommendations I call for.

November Update

This update is just to let you know that I am still working on the reader recommendations for October. I am still waiting for a copy of Room to become available. Both Shantaram and Cryptonomicon were each about as long as, say, three books I might normally have read for The Marginal Virtues, and I had to wait until October to get my hands on a copy of Lamb (a book I had selected for September) in any event. There were other circumstances in late September and early October which made it difficult to write or read consistently, so I fell behind. In any case, having recently finished the marginal commentary on Lamb, I am working on marginal commentaries for the other two works.

Obviously I have foregone requesting books for November, but I am planning on calling for books for December. Look for a request for books in a week or so.

August Update

This is to let folks know that I am changing the order in which I write and post marginal commentaries for a few of the books I have selected to read for August and September, and to mention a milestone on The Marginal Virtues.

I am going to be waiting for a while for one of the books I selected for August, Lamb, to become available at the library, almost certainly until well into September. Therefore, I am moving The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen to the list of books I will be reading and commenting upon for August, and Lamb to the list for September. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Also, because I forgot to mention it in the post itself, my marginal commentary on Hitman was the fiftieth post published on The Marginal Virtues. It feels a little unreal that I have already written that many posts (some of which, of course, are updates and the like), but I'm happy to have accomplished that feat (unspectacular though it may be). In particular, I'm glad that so many of the posts are on books that I would have never read were it not for your recommendations, so thank you all very much!

Update: On the Back Burner

The marginal commentaries on A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder and The Wednesday Letters are in progress, and will be finished before the end of the month, which will mark the second, or possibly just the first, time I have completed all of the books I selected to read for a month in the month I meant to read and write about them.

Within a day or two I will be choosing books to read for July. For next month, I will select three books from the list of books I have dubbed as being 'on the back burner', which are books which were recommended, but not selected. You can see what books there are for me to choose from on the page listing books read for this blog.

I haven't made up my mind to do so yet, but I am considering picking at random from the books on the list which I happen to already have in my possession, because I am feeling pretty lazy this month. I am sometimes on a tight schedule writing the commentaries when a book I am commenting upon is due back at the library in a few days.

Doing so would give me the chance, I hope, to finish writing about the Harry Potter books, as I am trying to post at least one essay on each of the books in the series before the final movie comes out in theatres. Hopefully I will also be able to complete one or two other posts of my choice, as well, such as the as yet incomplete series on Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death.

Stay tuned for the selections recommended by readers for July!

May Update

A couple of announcements:

1) I will be asking for reader recommendations in mid-May. I will probably be only asking for two this time, as I will still be working on a book recommended from January (yes, January); namely, Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, which has only just become available at the library.

2) On that note, I am nearly finished my marginal commentaries on the other two books I selected for January: World Made by Hand, by James Howard Kunstler, and Bringing Down the House, by Ben Mezrich. Look for them to come out in the next week or so.

Update: Back in the Habit

Now that my CPE unit at the Civic has finished, I will be getting back to marginal commentary and looking at books. I have some reader recommendations to finish, and I've read a few books during CPE which, if I can get my hands on them, will make for some interesting commenting.

Update: Singing the Marginal Blues

Early in January I suddenly became busy taking an intensive pastoral care course at the Civic Hospital (one campus of the amalgamated Ottawa Hospital).

Such is the nature of this course that I have had little time to write for this blog. It would be more accurate to say, rather, that I have not made the time to write for this blog. As I am beginning to work on the management of time, an aspect of the practice of virtue, I will find more time to write here as I waste less of time doing other things. Since, however, CPE cannot be categorised as a 'waste of time', I probably won't be on here frequently.

Like James Bond or the Termintator, I will be back.

November Update

Having recently completed my marginal commentary of On the Beach, I should say that I am still waiting for the other two recommended books from the library. One may be available as early as next week; the next probably won't be until sometime December.

I've already noted that I will be changing when I request recommendations to take waiting for books to become available into account.

In the meantime, I will probably dig up some other book to read and comment upon.

Changing Reader Recommendations

You'll have to wait a bit for my marginal commentary on some the books recommended by readers for November. This is because the wait for two of the recommended books at the Ottawa Public Library is long, and I may have to wait until next month to get my hands on one or both of them.

Because I anticipate this sort of thing is likely to happen frequently (that is, that I will be waiting to get my hands on recommended books because no copies are available at one or another library), I will be changing when I take suggestions for books to read and write about.

I won't be taking reader recommendations for the month of December this year. Instead, in mid-December, I will hold my next reader recommendation post for January of the new year. If I sought recommendations for books in mid-November for next month, it would follow too closely on the heels of this month's post; besides which, I will be lucky if I get my hands on some of the books before December that I am supposed to have read and written about this month.

I'll be updating the page on recommending books to take account of this change.

Keep your eyes peeled for my first marginal commentaries on the books recommended by readers!