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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
An Old Captivity
Donald Ross is a young man who learned flying in the military, then honed his craft flying about Canada, learning the intricacies of flying over the water and in remote places. He gets a job with an archeologist, Mr. Lockwood, who wants to investigate the possibility of Celtic settlements on Greenland. The operation is to be financed by Lockwood's rich, industrialist brother. There's a clinker, however, it seems that Lockwood's frumpy and prickly daughter, Alix, is to join the expedition. To Ross, that doesn't bode well, but he does need a job and likes the challenge. So, they head off. In Iceland, Ross begins having sleep problems. He procures a prescription of "propylin" (no idea what that might be). The first few nights, he sleeps like the dead and wakes up refreshed. But as the journey progresses, he begins having strange dreams. He begins reliving the life of some early settler to Greenland hundreds of years previously. Strangely, Alix seems to appear in the dreams as well. He even begins seeing "remembered" landmarks. Something like that.
This being Nevil Shute, the book is chock full of nerdy technical details about planes and engines and flying into and out of sea landings and how to secure sea planes and so forth. Still, it's quite a good yarn, as are all Nevil Shute tales, albeit somewhat more mystical than most of his works. Truly a GoodRead.
