Hello Friend.
I’m pleased to be introducing myself and this new project.
My name is Adam Burgess. I’m a Professor of English, a writer, a Buddhist lay-practitioner, a lifelong student, and an avid reader. Each of these aspects, and many more, is sure to come into the way I read and the way I respond to reading, so it seems sensible to share it all from the beginning.
I have outlined the Contemplative Reading Project in detail on our website’s About page, so I won’t repeat things here. Instead, I want to use this time to introduce our first three reads for the upcoming season. I’ve been teasing the start of this project & these first selections on social media, so I won’t delay any further!
October 2023
An Immense World by Ed Yong seemed like the perfect place to begin a contemplative reading project. After all, my hope for this kind of reading is that it will inspire us to connect with the world around us. Coincidentally, Barnes & Noble currently has this book on sale (buy one get one half off) because it’s one of their monthly picks. You can also find a copy here.
From the publisher: “The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world. This book welcomes us into a previously unfathomable dimension–the world as it is truly perceived by other animals.
We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth’s magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and humans that wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile’s scaly face is as sensitive as a lover’s fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries which lie unsolved.
In An Immense World, author and acclaimed science journalist Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. Because in order to understand our world we don’t need to travel to other places; we need to see through other eyes.”
November 2023
Long Life: Essays and Other Writings by Mary Oliver. I do plan to include poetry fairly regularly in this project, perhaps once a season. Poetry is not something everyone is familiar with, though, so starting with an accessible poet writing in both prose and poetic style, might be very helpful. Oliver is a poet very much in conversation with the earth and the soul, so she’ll have much to offer us as we begin this journey. This one might be harder to find in a traditional bookstore, but you can find it here.
From the publisher: “‘The gift of Oliver’s poetry is that she communicates the beauty she finds in the world and makes it unforgettable.’ (Miami Herald) This has never been truer than in Long Life, a luminous collection of seventeen essays and ten poems.
With the grace and precision that are the hallmarks of her work, Oliver shows us how writing ‘is a way of offering praise to the world’ and suggests we see her poems as ‘little alleluias’. Whether describing a goosefish stranded at low tide, the feeling of being baptized by the mist from a whale’s blowhole, or the ‘connection between soul and landscape’, Oliver invites readers to find themselves and their experiences at the center of her world. In Long Life she also speaks of poets and writers: Wordsworth’s ‘whirlwind’ of ‘beauty and strangeness’; Hawthorne’s ‘sweet-tempered’ side; and Emerson’s belief that ‘a man’s inclination, once awakened to it, would be to turn all the heavy sails of his life to a moral purpose.’
With consummate craftsmanship, Mary Oliver has created a breathtaking volume sure to add to her reputation as ‘one of our very best poets’ (New York Times Book Review).”
December 2023
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is perhaps the quintessential Christmas story, following the Christ story, of course. In many ways, Dickens invented the way westerners celebrate Christmas. It’s much more than just a holiday story, though, and I think many of us might think we know or remember it, but do we? December seems like a wonderful time to explore that question and to ponder more of what Dickens had in mind about humanity, goodness, and forgiveness. There are many editions of this one available.
From the publisher: “‘Merry Christmas!…every idiot who goes about with “Merry Christmas” on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding’
Dickens’ story of solitary miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taught the true meaning of Christmas by a series of ghostly visitors, has proved one of his most well-loved works. Ever since it was published in 1843 it has had an enduring influence on the way we think about the traditions of Christmas. Dickens’ other Christmas writings collected here include ‘The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton’, the short story from The Pickwick Papers on which A Christmas Carol was based; The Haunted Man, a tale of a man tormented by painful memories; along with shorter pieces, some drawn from the ‘Christmas Stories’ that Dickens wrote annually for his weekly journals. In all of them Dickens celebrates the season as one of geniality, charity and remembrance.”
Monthly Posting Schedule
- First: Introducing the text.
- Eighth: Progress post.
- Fifteenth: Progress post.
- Twenty-second: Progress post.
- Twenty-eighth: Concluding post.
Thank you for your interest in the Contemplative Reading Project. I look forward to our conversations on each of these titles in the coming months. Remember, you can post your thoughts in comments on this blog, on your own blogs, or in your social media spaces. We’ll be using #theCRPblog to find each other.
Today’s Meditation: “For readers, one of life’s most electrifying discoveries is that they are readers–not just capable of doing it, but in love with it. Hopelessly. Head over heels. The first book that does that is never forgotten, and each page seems to bring a fresh revelation, one that burns and exalts: Yes! That’s how it is! Yes! I saw that, too! And, of course, That’s what I think! That’s what I FEEL!” -Stephen King
Wishing you thoughtful reading,
~Adam
Contemplative Reading Project 
Leave a reply to amanda Cancel reply