They've been selling new, used, and antique books since 1975 and are basically crammed foot to ceiling with book. It also smells delicious.
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
December Roundup
This month has been a leave of absence for your blogger... so my apologies, but I've taken a bit more liberty in choosing what I read instead of reading for my blog. This has a relieved a lot of stress for now, but I've gotten around to visiting some very sweet local bookstores.
Happy Holidays! (whether it be Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza, or nothing) I know at the top of my book wish list is Knowledge is Beautiful (some very cool infographics//that I will buy with my grandparent's yearly gift of a book store gift card).
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Morals
This
is simply a post about morals. Nothing exciting or earthshattering, but I
wanted to make my blog a little more diverse than just books. Maybe I’ll do a
couple more posts like this, maybe I won’t. Let’s wait and see. (Inspiration of
this book came from a response about Dear Killer by Katherine Ewell)
Morals are tricky… they aren’t universally agreed upon.
We can see that from the many different people, religions, countries, and institutions
who all don’t agree. It seems that we live in a world where you are expected to
know right from wrong without a universally agreed upon right or wrong.
Sure, there are the standard laws that must people agree
on— don’t kill, don’t steal, be nice, don’t physically hurt someone… but what
about those tricky/controversial issues? The separation of church/religion and
state, gay marriage, abortion, immigration, these all seem so inherent that we
can’t talk about it.
The world seems divided now, there are political parties
that refute everything, there are religious organizations that refute two or
three but somewhere along the line contradict themselves. It seems to me that
everyone is trying to put everything into a white or black box of right or
wrong. Recently in class our teacher asked us if we thought there was a gray
area. I immediately think “Well, of course there is.” Our teacher goes on to
say that rather than there being a gray area most of the time it us deceiving
ourselves with thinking we are doing something gray rather than doing something
wrong.
But I think otherwise. Picking up your own trash rather
than picking up both yours and your friends isn’t wrong because you are pulling
your own weight. My teacher comes back with the point that don’t we all live in
the same world. You have to come to the conclusion then that you have a
different sense of right and wrong. The gooey, icky stuff is morality— a long
debated tradition of war and head turning.
Morals are defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “A person’s
standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is
not acceptable for them to do.” Notes how it says “a
person’s” not teacher, religion, nation, or school— morals are self-determined
yet we are always so scared to say otherwise, something against our environmentally
imposed morals.
So in the end,
this was just an editorial about morals. A little exploration into my brain about
how I think right and wrong is often characterized by the world around us, at
least me anyways. I know my “morals” are somewhat different than my parents’, teachers’,
and school’s. I know some of my friends would question me if I expressed my
morals. I know I have morals for how I think other people’s morals should be
structured, but what in the end does any of this mean? Morals, are simply there,
not to be regarded for public critique, but rather a private issue, one shunned
in polite conversation.
Friday, December 5, 2014
November Monthly Review
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