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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
The Man Who Was Thursday
Slacktivist, aka Fred Clark said I should read this, and so I have. Were I able to give this +s and -s, I'd rate it 4*-, which means it was a pretty good book. Some of my problems with it might be that I didn't understand its deeper meanings. It's likely allegorical or symbolic or something. The story begins with two people's talking about anarchy, one very much pro and one against. The against guy thinks it's all just poseur talk, but the pro guy decides to prove the sincerity of the situation. Next thing you know, the against-anarchy guy is an undercover cop who is seated within the inner council of the anarchists. The people in the council are all weird in different ways, a poet, a man of science, a philosopher, etc; they find out weird things about each other; one never knows what's real and imaginary, including the characters; and so forth. There are a number of religious allusions, that I sort of get, but I'm not sure I got them within the context of the book, but then I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it. I'll never have to write a paper or anything of the kind. At least one benefit of being old and unemployed.
Anyway, it's a sort of fun read, and if we're lucky, perhaps Slacktivist will one day tell us what it all means...or not, since he said he didn't understand it either, and he's much smarter about such things than I'll ever be.
