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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 Big Sleep
This is quintessential "noire" detective fiction. Chandler pretty much developed the genre to its apex. The Big Sleep is the first of his Philip Marlowe novels. It was later turned into one awesome movie staring Bogart and Bacall, which is one of my all-time favorites (I'm sure I've got it around somewhere...can't wait for another gander). I don't see a lot of point in rehashing the plot. Marlowe is a private detective who is hired, ostensibly, to protect a rich man (who has two wild daughters) from blackmail. So, there's lots of killing, driving around in the rain, hot women trying out their come-hither looks on whomever seems to have a few extra nickels, drugs, corrupt cops, etc. The previous Chandler book I read (Farewell, My Lovely) was amazingly racist. This one not so much. Rather it engaged in some virulent homophobia. In some ways, it seems, we have improved as a society. In terms of guns, corruption, drugs, punks, floozies, etc., not so much.
With luck, I'll find some other Chandler books on kindle that I can snag from the library, although I fear their selection is rather limited.
