Welcome to the very first edition of Things I’m Digging! This is just a quick rundown of a few things that I’m enjoying this week. They may be new things I’ve discovered, things that I can’t stop thinking about, posts, books, recipes, music, art – anything! This week, I’ve got a mixture of things that you hopefully will find interesting. Let me know what you think! I hope I can help you to discover some fun new things to enjoy this week.
You’ll notice that a lot of the books I post pictures of have labels on them. That’s because they’re library books! I work at an academic library, and end up checking out a lot of books from there. It’s how I get most of my reading done. Pictures of pristine new copies of books look slick and a lot prettier than beat-up library copies, but I wanted to let you see reality. This is where I get most of my books. I’d love to be able to buy a new copy of every book I want to read, but it just isn’t really possible, and I know the same is true for lots of other people. Therefore, I encourage you to check out your local library. You can read a lot more when it’s free, and can afford to be more daring, trying things you aren’t sure you’ll like, if you don’t have to pay for every single book you read!
Greta Van Fleet – From the Fires
I have to confess, I don’t listen to as much new music as I should. So much of it just isn’t my thing, is kind of boring, or, well, just isn’t that good when you compare it to the classics of the past half-century or so, but there are a few bands out there who capture the pure rock-and-roll joy of the golden era with a contemporary spin. Enter Greta van Fleet. This band of precocious youngsters crashed onto the scene in 2017 with their hard-hitting singles “Highway Tune” and “Black Smoke Rising,” following them up with the double EP From the Fires, which went on to win a Grammy for Best Rock Album. As someone who often complains that the performers the Grammys consider “rock” these days are anything but (I’m looking at you, Lorde), I was overjoyed for a band featuring wailing guitar solos, driving rhythms and powerful rock vocals to go home with the prize. This supremely listenable album has been playing on my stereo almost nonstop for a couple of weeks now. I checked it out from the library. It’s way overdue. I need to return it. Maybe after I get my own copy.
Chickpea Curry from Nutrition Stripped
I’ve been meaning to try this recipe for ages, and I finally did. It was everything I’d hoped it would be. It’s incredibly easy to make, not terribly time consuming, delicious, healthy, and leaves you with plenty of leftovers to eat later. Chopping an onion is the most work-intensive thing you have to do to make this delicious dream a reality. Give it a shot! You can find the recipe on McKel Kooienga’s site, Nutrition Stripped.
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy’s novella has been on my to read list for a long time now, and I’m so glad I finally got around to it. The Death of Ivan Ilych is far more what the title makes it sound like than I was expecting. Tolstoy opens with a scene of friends and family meeting at the funeral of the recently deceased Ivan Ilych, then moves on to an account of the life, long illness, and ultimate death of the titular character. It is a stark, unflinching examination of life and death, and how we can fight against it or accept it as we attempt to find meaning in the end of our lives’ journeys. It is a quick read, but it stays with you for far longer than the time it takes to read the brief text.
This 2,000-Year-Old Dog Art from the Ashmolean
Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, founded in 1683, houses the University’s considerable art and archaeology collections, which can be viewed for free. It also benefits those of us who are sadly not in Oxford by posting interesting examples from its collections on social media. This post celebrating National Dog Day was shared on the Ashmolean’s Twitter account.
That Back-to-School Feeling
In my day job, I work in an academic library. That means that when fall comes, I see all of the returning students and little freshies flooding in to start on their academic careers. It always makes me feel nostalgic about my own college days; I loved learning and attending classes, and even doing reading assignments and writing papers! It may help that I was an English major, so that really just meant I read lots of novels and poetry and talked about them with other people who loved literature as much as I did, but I suppose if I had been a science person, I would’ve felt the same way about salamander habitats or forest ecosystems. At the library, we collect copies of required and suggested reading for all of the courses for the semester for students to check out. It reminds me of the excitement of getting my reading list for each semester, and buying books in preparation for my new classes. I really miss it!
The Trailer for Netflix’s The King
Netflix’s upcoming film draws from Shakespeare’s plays to tell the story of Henry V. I’m interested to see how they manage to pack three plays’ worth of content into one movie, and to what extent they actually choose to adapt Shakespeare and how many liberties they take with it. We’ll all get to see it November 1. In the meantime, enjoy the trailer:
