Thoughts on Love from Kahlil Gibran

Just a week after my dear friend told me that I should read her favorite book, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, I saw it on my boyfriend's bookshelf. Of course, I was reading about four books at the time already, so it went from his shelf to the top of my to-read pile.

Today, though, I cracked that baby open on my subway ride home from work. It's a lot to take in at once--thoughts on love, family, marriage, work, etc.--but there have been some very inspiring moments and phrases that have stuck with me.

The section on love (naturally--also the first section) is my favorite so far--powerful and true, I want to keep reading it to myself so that it sinks in deeper and deeper. And I want to share it with you all:

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's hear.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," by rather, "I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips. (Gibran, 11-14)

(Gibran, Kahil. The Prophet. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.)

"Man Men" Reading List: The Book Biz and the Ad World Collide

It seems the "Mad Men" craze is stretching even further than tv-land.

Clothing retailers have taken notice, gearing their styles toward 1960s New York. Cities are capatilizing on its popularity with open outdoor season premiere viewings (like the one in Times Square this past Sunday). Even the book biz is been tagging along for the ride.

In fact, just last week Boldtype (a online publishing segment by Flavorpill) posted an article called "The Definitive Man Men Reading List."

Included in the list are ten books that appeared in the first few seasons of the award-winning AMC drama, with a recap and screenshot of its time on-screen and a link to an excerpt of each book. The post was sent out via Flavorpill to subscibers all over the world, including to a friend of mine, J, who thoughtfully passed it my way. (Please not that the below quoted material has been abridged.):

One of the things we love most about Mad Men (and we’re big fans, so it’s hard to pick) is that the show is chock full of significant period details. And few things say more about a character or era than books. From its first season, the impeccably literate series has showcased everything from popular novels of the early ’60s to classic literature. After the jump, we’ve compiled an extensive list of books featured in, based on, or that inspired Mad Men, broken down by season. Happy — or, more realistically, dramatic and depressing but still valuable and gripping — reading!

SEASON ONE

The Best of Everything — Rona Jaffe (1958) Don snuggles up to this book in bed with Betty. So, what’s a manly man like our hero doing with what basically amounted to ’50s chick lit? We’re guessing market research… which may also be exactly what his marriage amounts to, in the end.
Read: An excerpt of The Best of Everything

Atlas Shrugged — Ayn Rand Basically all you need to know about mysterious Sterling Cooper partner Bert Cooper is that he’s obsessed with Ayn Rand. In season one, he tells Don, “I believe we are alike. You are a productive and reasonable man, and in the end, completely self interested” and tells him to buy a copy of Atlas Shrugged. And that’s pretty much the inspiration behind Cooper’s entire cultured, eccentric, capitalist persona.
Read: An excerpt of Atlas Shrugged
Watch: Bert preaches the gospel of Rand

SEASON TWO

The Sound and the Fury — William Faulkner (1929) You want to know how good sex with Don Draper is? Well, when he’s in bed with Joy in Los Angeles, she’s reading The Sound and the Fury. When he asks her how she likes Faulkner’s masterpiece, she replies that it’s just OK compared to their roll in the hay.
Read: A free hypertext version of the novel

Meditations in an Emergency — Frank O’Hara (1957) Perhaps the most visible book to appear on the show, Meditations in an Emergency is also the title of Mad Men’s second season finale. Way back in the first episode of that series, Don Draper meets a bohemian reading it in a bar where O’Hara happens to have composed much of the book who suggests that he’s too square to appreciate it. That, of course, is good enough to sell Don on the book. The New York School poet’s pieces, like the chaotic episode, are fraught with personal crisis.
Read: “Meditations in an Emergency”
Watch: Don reading from O’Hara’s “Mayakovsky”

SEASON THREE

The Group — Mary McCarthy (1963) Undoubtedly part of the wising up process for Bryn Mawr grad Betty, The Group is a quick, gossipy, but also smart and satirical novel about a gaggle of Vassar grads and their largely unhappy adult lives. It’s just the kind of downer we can imagine her savoring in season three.
Read: Natasha Vargas-Cooper of The Awl on Betty, The Group, and Sex and the Single Girl

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Edward Gibbon (1776-1789) Is there any greater portent of total familial meltdown than Gibbon’s 18th-century masterpiece in the hands of little Sally Draper? Yes, that is the bedtime story she reads aloud to her beloved Grandpa Gene early in season three.
Read: All six volumes at Project Gutenberg

See the unabridged list HERE

The article also goes on to plug some of the recent "Mad Men" tie-in publications, such as:

Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960s America — Natasha Vargas-Cooper (2010)

Mad Men and Philosophy: Nothing Is as It Seems — ed. Rod Carveth and James B. South (2010)

The Fashion File: Advice, Tips, and Inspiration from the Costume Designer of Mad Men — Janie Bryant with Monica Corcoran Harel (coming October 2010)

It's Almost Time for Beach Reading...

This year, Entertainment Weekly's Summer Entertainment Guide offers readers 18 exciting upcoming book releases in their most recent issue.

Bring on the beach reading!

THIS BODY OF DEATH, Elizabeth George (April 20)

HALF LIFE, Roopi Farooki (April 27)

GIRL IN TRANSLATION, Jean Kwok (April 29)

THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE, Julie Orringer (May 4)

THE LAST STAND, Nathaniel Philbrick (May 4)

SLOW LOVE: HOW I LOST MY JOB, PUT ON MY PAJAMAS AND FOUND HAPPINESS, Dominique Browning (May 9)

WAR, Sebastian Junger (May 11)

THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST, Stieg Larsson (May 25)

THE PARTICULAR SADNESS OF LEMON CAKE, Aimee Bender (June 1)

THE SHORT SECOND LIFE OF BREE TANNER, Stephanie Meyer (June 5)

THE PASSAGE, Justin Cronin (June 8)

SO COLD THE RIVER, Michael Koryta (June 9)

THE COOKBOOK COLLECTOR, Allegra Goodman (July 6)

LUCY, Laurence Gonzales (July 13)

RED HOOK ROAD, Ayelet Waldman (July 13)

I CURSE THE RIVER OF TIME, Per Petterson (Aug. 3)

YOU LOST ME THERE, Rosecrans Baldwin (Aug. 12)

MOCKINGJAY, Suzanne Collins (Aug. 24)

See the covers and read the descriptions HERE

I was surprised that I didn't know the majority books EW is jumping up and down about here. But of course, among their wide variety of suggestions are the much-awaited Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (the final book in her dystopian YA trilogy), The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson (the fourth book in his bestselling series), and the next installment of Twilight--The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner--told from the perspective of a young vampire who cameos in Eclipse.

I also now have a few new books to add to my list, as I'm particularly excited about Half Life, Slow Love, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, The Cookbook Collector, I Curse the River of Time, and You Lost Me There.

I can't wait to go to the beach and read all day!