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Book Two Announcement
Book Two | October 30th – November 13th, 2022
City of Fortune : How Venice Ruled the Seas
Roger Crowley
Please join me in reading City of Fortune : How Venice Ruled the Seas. I will be back on November 13th.
Yours,
Jade St. Claire
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Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl
Dear Readers –
It’s been two weeks since The Book Project began and I am still here with you!
Thank you for returning to check in and to read this message, and thank you also for joining me in reading this incredible book – truly, it is one of the great books of our time.
First off, I hope you did find the opportunity to read Man’s Search for Meaning. I was able to read it in twenty minute blocks scattered throughout a busy fortnight. If you weren’t able to find the time, and you would like to join for the next book, may I suggest swapping out swiping on social media for a few minutes and reading instead. If you do not do social media, just like my husband, try reading before bed or in the morning while your coffee brews.
If you did find the time, I hope you were touched by the honest and raw account of the Holocaust experience Frankl shares with his readers. And also drawn in and fascinated by his description of logotherapy – a school of psychotherapy he created based on the meaning of our existence and the search for healing through pursuit of meaning in one’s life.
I was particularly moved as Frankl described a method of mental escapism he employed while performing forced labor as a concentration camp prisoner. He writes, “In spite of all the enforced physical and mental primitiveness of the life in a concentration camp, it was possible for spiritual life to deepen.”
He describes creating a rich spiritual world involving thoughts of his beloved wife and their everyday lives together. A thought of ultimate truth comes to him even in his current experience of horror and death, “The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved.” Thoughts of his love allowed him to continue to live, even in unimaginable circumstances.
Thank you again for joining me here for Book One of The Book Project. If you feel moved to do so, please use the Comment space below to share your thoughts on and personal experience of reading Man’s Search for Meaning.
If you would like to purchase my copy of Man’s Search for Meaning with a special inscription written just for you, please mention this in the Comments section, message me through the Contact section, or send me an email to bookprojectjsc@gmail.com.
Be on the lookout for the Book Two announcement tomorrow, October 30th, 2022.
-Jade St. Claire
Further Reading –
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Book One Announcement
Book One | October 15th – October 29th, 2022
Man’s Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl
First published in German in 1946 under the title Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager.
Please join me in reading Man’s Search for Meaning. I will be back on October 29th.
Yours,
Jade St. Claire
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Here’s The Plan
Over the next twelve months, in an effort to reconnect with my inner reader, every two weeks I will choose a book from my bookshelves and read it cover to cover. At the start of each two-week period, I will share with you, my generous reader, the title and author, so that you may join me for a great read. If you are fortunate enough to live in a nation with access to free public libraries, you can make use of them at no cost to you, and both physical books and online versions are readily available. Millions of used books are available online for purchase. If you are a purist, hardcover new editions can often be found and added to your collection.
After two weeks, I will write a few thoughts online, offer my copy up for sale, and reveal the next book.
Feel free to share your own thoughts on the piece in the Comments Section.
My library, created over many years, contains a variety of books. Some of the texts were written first in English, and many were first published in a language other than English. Fiction and nonfiction both appear.
Every two weeks you will have a new title to explore. Perhaps some titles will not inspire or interest you – perhaps none will. To meet this challenge, I have created an opportunity for you to share your personal library with me.
If you would like to share a book near and dear to your heart with The Book Project, mail it to me at the following address:
Jade St. Claire
P.O. Box 44876
Phoenix, Arizona
85064
U.S.A.
When you decide to purchase my copy of a book, I will inscribe it with a message, hopefully inspiring you to continue reading, connecting us as only a shared reading experience can.
If you find yourself wanting to reconnect with the reader you once were, or to discover new titles, or to connect with other readers around the world (or perhaps curiosity has gotten the better of you), consider joining me on The Book Project.
Yours,
Jade St. Claire
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Welcome to The Book Project
Somewhere in the honey-coloured desert along the I-10 freeway, speeding east from Los Angeles, The Book Project was conceived.
I have long identified as a voracious reader, devouring books of all genres, thirsty for a new set of ideas, fresh human perspectives, and inspiration, alighting on each printed word as onto stepping stones toward new worlds. Certainly anyone with a love of reading has experienced being utterly transported by a great book.
I now find myself grown into a compassionate adult shaped by hundreds of these transformative experiences.
After years of grueling, often demoralizing professional training and a transcontinental move, I started to build bookshelves. My beloved collection needed a home. My newest tomes needed to feel welcomed. I ran my aching, swollen fingers along the many-colored spines of my learned friends, old and new, resting in cardboard boxes. It seemed to be the right move. So I built. Surely the reading would come.
As a trip to a vibrant city tends to do, my recent visit to the City of Angels had both unsettled and inspired me. On this quiet afternoon drive, with my beloved toddler sleeping peacefully behind me, a singular thought took shape. I had become much less of a reader of books and much more of an optimistic collector. When repeatedly questioned about how I found time to read, I jestingly mentioned construction of a retirement book collection. ‘Some day’ would eventually arrive, and I could read – and be electrified by poetry and prose – again.
In the last decade I have gradually lost touch with my cherished love of reading. You yourself might identify. Perhaps you were once steeped in free time, or perhaps you just made the time, but you were a reader. Like so many of us, I blame the complexities of life – and a chronic lack of sleep – for my inability to make it through a book.
The Book Project is my public, intentional, and bold statement: I am a reader! I was once and I will be again. And my life will once again be transformed as my thoughts transform. I sincerely hope you will come along and read with me – it is going to be one hell of a ride!
Look out for tomorrow’s post and Book One.
Yours,
Jade St. Claire
The Book Project 