Reviewing George Eliot's "The Mill on the Floss"

I just finished listening to the audio version of George Eliot's novel, and will warn you now that I have basically recounted everything in the book below. Therefore if you're the kind of person who hates knowing the end of the book until they've read it, don't read past the page break because I've not blacked out most of the spoilers. 

The Mill on the Floss is essentially about two siblings: the practical, unimaginative but hard-working Tom Tulliver, and his emotional, dreaming, and misfit younger sister Maggie. As I read the story, I began to suspect each sibling might be symbolized by the two things in the title: Tom is the hardworking, stolid Mill, Maggie is the turbulent, changeable river Floss.  The story opens when they're children and follows them into young adulthood, through all their family tragedies and personal conflicts with one another.

Thoughts on William Cullen Bryant's "A Winter Piece"

From William Cullen Bryant's poem "A Winter Piece":

But Winter has yet brighter scenes—he boasts

Splendors beyond what gorgeous Summer knows;

Or Autumn with his many fruits, and woods

All flushed with many hues. Come when the rains

Have glazed the snow and clothed the trees with ice,

While the slant of sun of February pours

Into the bowers a flood of light. Approach!

The incrusted surface shall upbear thy steps,

And the broad arching portals of the grove

Welcome thy entering. Look! the massy trunks

Are cased in pure crystal; each light spray,

Nodding and tinkling in the breath of heaven,

Is studded with its trembling water-drops,

That glimmer with an amethystine light.

If you're like me, a resident of the northern hemisphere and thus trapped inside for several freezing
months at a stretch, then like me, you may need a reminder that even when Winter is bitter in its cold,
it is beautiful as well.

Learning About Things, And Learning About Yourself, Through Books

I find that nonfiction is sometimes a great way to "shake things up" when I get into a literature rut and start mixing up fictional characters, relationships, and plot points. It's also a legitimate way to read books that have quite a few pictures in them--as some nonfiction have lovely full-spread photography or information graphs--while also learning a lot of new information. And, as I discovered recently, nonfiction is a way to discover new things about yourself, explore possible new hobbies and interests, all from the safety and ease of your armchair (or wherever you happen to be reposing whilst reading).

I thought reading about caves would be a good idea. It was a bit of a random scientific field I chose, and I have learned a lot, such as:

1) Most caves are formed out of limestone, but there are also caves created from volcanic activity. 

Priorities

Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier.  ~ Kathleen Norris

Lately I've been struggling to keep up my usual stamina with reading. It isn't that I don't still love it. I genuinely enjoy reading once I've started. It's not even that it's too hard to start reading in the first place. It's the idea of "making time" so I can start in the first place.

It's a simple thing to say "How to read a book? Why, just do it. Start and don't stop until you've finished." This is partly true, of course. If you're not quite sure what your priorities are in life, just look at what you make time for--not what you have to do (this includes work, grocery shopping, laundry, etc.) but what you sacrifice sleep in order to do AFTER you've done what you needed to do.