Sometimes, when I am discouraged with my writing, to distract myself, I like to think about what a famous author of the past would have said if they were alive today and could see how we write now days.
George Washington: What do you mean you no longer practice penmanship in schools? How can one even think of doing away with such an important accomplishment?
Jane Austen: Emails? But what about love letters?! *Gasp*
For the last two years or so, I have been on a quest to read some of the classical literature that I missed reading when I was in high school. I took two years of literature in high school and really enjoyed it, but I felt I missed some of the other great stories out there. Yes, I made it through Dickens, but David Copperfield was not the best one to read of Dickens, I would say. And I missed half of Jane Austen’s fabulous works in there somewhere! Needless to say, I decided to try and dig a little deeper into the amazing world of classical literature.
Ivanhoe had been on my TBR list for some time before I finally got the enormous book from the library and started in. I had pretty much no idea about what I was getting myself into except that it was set in England.
When I got done, I was more than pleasantly surprised with the story! I loved it!
I have always loved bookshelves. Partly because of the treasures they hold in the form of the books on their shelves, but also because of the beautiful way they beckon to explore other worlds.
“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
I read this book recently and found it really inspiring! I love learning about the lives of the famous authors behind the stories I love. This book did a fabulous job of offering a look into some of the more well-known women authors.
When this season of autumn roles around, I always get hit by something I like to call “Awakening of the Memories”. Okay, it sounds nice, but it is just my really fancy term for a tender sense of nostalgia as the days get shorter and colder. 🙂 I always like to pull out some of my favorite children’s books around this time and peruse them. They are treasures to me that really remind me of the simpler times. I thought I would share some of my favorite children’s books to re-read in the autumn.
Little Woman
Set in New England during the Civil War, I read this story when I was younger and absolutely have never forgotten the beautiful, homey world of the March sisters.
During my years of formal schooling, I studied Latin, French and Spanish. I’m not fluent in any of them, regretfully, but I remember smatterings of each. The Latin I took was quite fun, I remember. By my third year, the course had us doing Latin word puzzles!
Those first three languages, I really only dabbled in, but now I am studying Hebrew and it has become a passion of mine to learn to speak it and understand it for several years now.
But what does this have to do with writing? Other than the fact that language is among the first things we learn to utilize when we are babies, it is the writer’s one and only tool to tell their stories. (Okay, a pencil and paper or a computer screen and keyboard are necessary!)
Continue reading “The 3 Ways Studying Foreign Languages Helps with Writing”
Legends and Roses 