24 Festive Tasks: World Philosophy Day

 

Square Twelve

Book: Read a book about philosophy or a philosopher, or a how-to book about changing your life in a significant way or suggesting a particular lifestyle (Hygge, Marie Kobo, etc.).

Self-help books drive me up a wall -- unless they are telling me how to fix faucet that drips. No Hygge. No Mary Condom. Guess I am stuck reading a philosophy book --which after all these years I still don't get. I tried to read Meditations (Marcus Aurelius) which has been on my TBR but I can't get past the narrator--zzzzzzzzzzz.  I will have to keep looking for something short and philosophical. I must find something because my goal is to read all 24 books. After much searching, I finally found:

Maimonides and Medieval Jewish Philosophy by Idit Dobbs-Weinstein (read by Lynn Redgrave et al.)

Short and sweet. At least now I know that I am not going to tackle the 30 hour tome, even if it does draw heavily on letters found in the Cairo Genizah.

Task 1: What is your reviewing / rating policy? Do you accept book review requests?

I review and rate when I have something to say about the book. Very few books get a five star rating from me, most get 3 stars and they have to be real stinkers to get anything less. Just because a book wasn't for me, doesn't mean it automatically gets just 1 star; it could have been a 5-star read that wasn't to my taste, or mood -- like Crime and Punishment. As for accepting book review requests, I've never been asked but I think that I would say, "No."  I read very little current fiction.

Task 2: How do you stay zen / sane over the holidays or in other stressful periods? And / Or: How did you manage to stay (more or less) zen throughout 2020 … if you did?

My holiday zen is simple: Stress? I don't get it, I give it. 

 I love the winter holidays. It means the end of DH's busy season and time to kick back and relax, take a vacation (too hot to travel in summer). Thanksgiving is my brother's burden usually, but not this year. This year, it is/ my problem but we will be 6 not 26, so we are talking something like a Sunday dinner and not a huge production. Our house has never been on Santa's route, so there is much I don't have to worry about that others find stressful. Yes, Hanukkah lasts 8 days but distance means we only get the see the kids on the weekend. (In truth, the holiday that is most stressful for me is Passover because of the preparation involved and the timing of it all--and you would think that after 45 years I would have the timing down.)

As for staying sane during the pandemic, the answer is that it is just the two of living here--no kids, no animals. Our attitude has always been: 1) "you do what you have to do when you have to do it" and 2) "this, too, shall pass" -- and that is how we get through any difficult  situation. I decided early on in the pandemic that complaining was not permitted; as long as we were healthy, there would be no complaining about all the thing we would not do; I would focus on the positives.   DH is still working (he is over retirement age) and he has been working from home since the middle of March. I tend to be a homebody and have my books to keep my mind occupied, in other words, not much change for me. As the introvert, I have probably had less trouble dealing with all this than my extrovert spouse. 

Some whiny stranger complained to me as I stopped to put my mask on before entering a store, "When is this going to be over."  I responded in what I hoped was a pleasant tone, "About a year from now" and was heading into the store before she could engage further. 

Bonus Task: Half star ratings or not? Tell us what you think and whether you use them.

I prefer a 10 point scale, it is more nuanced; hence, I like half stars on a 5 point scale. And I wished that there was a way to give zero stars -- because there is the occasional book that is just so bad that even one star is too many.