11
Followers
23
Following
Reading Slothfully
I was told in elementary school that I only could read at half the speed for success in college. Oh well, one benefit of slow reading is you get to live with the characters a longer period of time. I read in a vain attempt to better understand people. At my other homes, I'm known as a spouse, pop, guy in the choir, physical chemist, computer/web dilettante and child-care provider. In theory, I'm a published author, if you consider stuff like Quenching Cross Sections for Electronic Energy Transfer Reactions Between Metastable Argon Atoms and Noble Gases and Small Molecules to count as publications. I've strewn dozens of such fascinating things to the winds.
Currently reading
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas
The Spirit of the Border
Ramona the Brave (Ramona, #3)
The Underground Man (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
Delilah of the Snows
Mrs. Miniver
Betsy-Tacy Treasury (P.S.)
A Christmas Carol
The Way Some People Die
Envy of Angels
Doctor Dolittle's Circus
My recollection from the dark ages of elementary school was that this was my favorite of the Doctor Doolittle books. It certainly is a good one. I was a bit disappointed with Doctor Doolittle's Post Office, the one preceding this one (it seemed a bit disjointed), so I was happy to see that Lofting got his mojo back with Doctor Doolittle's Circus. The Doctor needs to make some money so as to pay back a sailor for a boat he borrowed and subsequently wrecked. So he and his animal friends, along with the Cat's Meat Man, Matthew Mugg, join a circus to show off the Pushmi-pullyu at six pence a pop. The circus seems to be a bit seamy in parts, especially the way the animals are treated in the menagerie. After a while, through a series of adventures, the doctor ends up running the circus himself, and all appears to end happily. Who knows, perhaps they'll even make enough money to pay back the sailor one day.
