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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
Emma
We've just gone through an orgy of Jane Austen videos at our house, including two versions of Pride and Prejudice, two of Persuasion, and two of Emma. My spouse went back and re-read most of them, and decided I should also re-read at least one. I'd done Pride and Prejudice fairly recently, so Emma was elected. I had read Emma previously when I was in college, which was pretty much in the dark ages, back before colleges were turned into glorified trade schools, and when education was more important than amassing cash and having bloated, over-aid, administrative staffs.I found Emma a bit long and tedious in parts, but the tedium was also appropriate to the story. Several of the characters are either rather taken to blathering endlessly, or taken to excesses of self flattery, or both. I wanted to choke them, but then one would. Whatever, Jane Austen, as always, uses her vehicle for many observations on manners and society. Emma provides much food for thought on the ways be behave towards each other, the social charades and self delusions in which we engage ourselves. Fortunately, Emma herself, has enough critical thinking skills, that she eventually can see through her own faults, aided greatly by her friend, Mr. Knightly, and things end happily ever after, so to speak.
