If by Rudyard Kipling

IF
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son! 

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/if/

C.S. Lewis

What does C.S. Lewis have to do with my reading selections this month?  Nothing, really.  It's just that I am finishing up reading Mere Christianity which he wrote several decades ago before I start my other selection.  I like it. It's one of those books that makes you think; actually, it hurts to think when you read this book--but it's a good hurt.  I will likely have to re-read it sometime as it's topic is rich and deals with the heart of matter--what does one really believe in?

Want to learn more about C.S. Lewis and Mere Christianity?  Click on the links below.
C. S. Lewis
Mere Christianity

March Madness

I'm determined to read two novels this month:  A Wrinkle in Time ( a suggestion by a friend) and The Great Gatsby (for the second time).  Seeing as a remake of The Great Gatsby (TGG) will be released this year, I figured I should brush up on my Roaring Twenties drama and art deco fashions.  TGG happens to be the same novel my friend's twins are reading as sophomores in high schools; good, I'll have someone to talk to about the novel. 
I've never read A Wrinkle in Time, but it was the winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal; I hear it's a fun, easy read--exactly what I need after Hugo.

The really important question, however, is:  Will Leo be better than Redford?  Oooo, tough one.