Welcome to Litsy!

Book #16 of 2024: “The Celtic Twilight” by WB Yeats

This had a few poems but was mostly stories about the Sidhe collected from Irish people across the country. I‘ll come back to it again later when I have time to do some more research into the people, places, and legends referenced. And, maybe, take a trip to all the places Yeats identifies as doors to the dim world.

I enjoyed reading the accounts that Yeats has collected from his fellow irishmen. I have always been fascinated by the far and reading these accounts was enlightening.

Planning to start this today:) it‘s a lovely cold and wet day, just perfect for reading and drinking hot tea and coffee.

I had to wonder how much of this was different from the volume of fairy and folk tales I read a few years ago (that took me a couple of tries to read). Not in the right headspace for this.

“Our feet would linger where beauty has lived its life of sorrow to make us understand that it is not of the world.”

Not quite what I was expecting, but still interesting. This book is a collection of faeries stories collected by William Butler Yeats around his beloved Ireland.

Which works for my #Scarathalon theme for #TeamStoker (3 pts) & my prompt from WAY back in Winter for #Booked2019 #SetInIreland #IrishAuthor

But I have to say, with the way we view horror today, people being “disappeared” to faerie, and visions & haunting isn‘t quite as scary.

It‘s not the introduction. It‘s the book. Kill me now. The most exciting part of this book is the cover. Literally.
Reads like a piece of bad academia. It gives very dry, academic descriptions of faerielore without ever showing the great life, depth, color, wonder, or beauty that exists within these stories. Active use of passive voice makes this even dryer. Yeats‘s poetry is wonderful, but this is rambling and painful to read. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

Interesting thought on belief.
#celtictwilight #wbyeats #belief
Not sure how I feel about this book yet. I feel like I‘m still in the introductory phase. At least I hope so. If this is the whole book, I will go mad.

#cattitude

#serialreader

“...for our feet would linger where beauty has lived its life of sorrow to make us understand that it is not of the world.”

#serialreader

I dusted off the old @SerialReader app this night. Ready for some tales! #serialreader

This has such an evocative title, I've wanted to read it for decades. I'd expected it to be a lyrical celebration of the folkloric traditions of Ireland, and those parts of it that were that, I found the best. For the rest, it was a collection of brief outlines of fairly typical folkloric tales, interspersed with some slightly longer stories, some of which were interesting. A slightly disappointing read, but still worthwhile. 3.5/5🌟

"Cats were serpents, and they were made into cats at the time of some great change in the world. That is why they are hard to kill, and why it is dangerous to meddle with them. If you annoy a cat it might claw or bite you in a way that would put poison in you, and that would be the serpent's tooth."

“Out-worn heart, in a time out-worn,
Come clear of the nets of wrong and right;
Laugh, heart, again in the gray twilight,
Sigh, heart, again in the dew of the moon."

"The things a man has heard and seen are threads of life, and if he pull them carefully from the confused distaff of memory, any who will can weave them into whatever garments of belief please them best"

This book has been harder to read than I expected but there still are some awesome truths inside.

#faeries #feelings #serialreader

Currently reading on Serial Reader. Hope they have more like this!

#fairies #classics #serialreader

"We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather about us that they may see, it may be, their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even with a fiercer life because of our quiet."
W B Yeats, The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore

#yeats #theceltictwilight #quiet #contemplation

And I'm done. First time I've read a book by Yeats but this won't be my last.
Thanks to @SerialReader for having this on there!
#serialreads #classicreads #fae #MtTBR

just signed up for my first #litsyswap thanks to @JoScho for getting this together!
I'm stoked to start shopping once I get paired!

"Those that see the people of faery most often, and so have the most of their wisdom, are often very poor, but often, too, they are thought to have a strength beyond that of man"

I have #MtTBR piles everywhere; on my iPad, my Kindle app on my cell, an entire bookcase (don't look at me like that books!), and not to mention at the library... I'm going to push myself to get through them...somehow

I'm still categorising my books, but here are a few #fablesandfolklore for @RealLifeReading

I'm going to bail on this one - I think if you love Ireland and understand the mythology you'll enjoy it, but I don't know it and I'm not enjoying it so I'll find another y for my #LitsyAtoZ challenge @BookishMarginalia

Yoda! 🤣🤣🤣

These words have been posted on my bedroom door for five years. I read them every day.