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lgpiper

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
Jules Verne
The Spirit of the Border
Zane Grey
Ramona the Brave (Ramona, #3)
Beverly Cleary
The Underground Man (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
Ross Macdonald
Delilah of the Snows
Harold Bindloss
Mrs. Miniver
Jan Struther
Betsy-Tacy Treasury (P.S.)
Maud Hart Lovelace
A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens
The Way Some People Die
Ross Macdonald
Envy of Angels
Matt Wallace

Moominpappa at Sea

Moominpappa at Sea - Tove Jansson, Kingsley Hart After several "difficult" books, I figured it was time to revisit the Moomins. Sadly, this will be my last visit with them for a while, I plucked the last two Moomin books from the children's shelves in our library, and there won't be anymore for me to enjoy.

Anyway, in this book, it seems that Moominpappa is getting bored in Moomin Valley. He also has dreams of a lighthouse. Something like that. So he packs Moominmamma, Mommintroll and LittleMy into his boat, The Adventure, and heads out to sea. Eventually, they find the lighthouse. The lighthouse keeper seems to be missing. All they find is an old fisherman who doesn't communicate much. The island appears to have a life of its own—e.g. stones and trees move about—and it takes them all quite some time to figure things out.

I'm not sure this is at the level of the other Moomin books I've read, but it got better as I went along. Probably better because the writing can be lyrical in parts, the action mystical, and the Moomins adorable. Rather fun.