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swallowing

Conversations with Calliope- Tasting, Swallowing and Digesting Books

By Joseph Langen


 

 


(Herb and tea market)

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How is your column coming?
JOE: Glad you asked. It's finished and ready for the presses.
CALLIOPE: Tell me about it.
JOE: I ended up writing about Sir Francis Bacon's quote about books.
CALLIOPE: Which is?
JOE: "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few others to be chewed and digested."
CALLIOPE: I remember the quote- seventeenth century wasn't it?
JOE: Precisely. I thought it made a good framework for my thoughts about why we read books.
CALLIOPE: Indeed. How did you go about it?
JOE: I gave examples of books falling into each category from my own recent reading.
CALLIOPE: And then?
JOE: I encouraged my readers to taste the delights, swallow learnings and enhance their lives with books.
CALLIOPE: Noble of you.
JOE: I wanted to support an endeavor which has brought me great satisfaction over the years. Talk with you tomorrow.

 

 

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