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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 Cold Dish
This is another book my brother (or sister-in-law) insisted that I just had to read. I have no idea why. Maybe Craig Johnson is a friend of their's? His bio doesn't make that seem likely. Whatever, they wouldn't take no for an answer, so to speak, and so I snagged a copy and read it. I guess the book was ok. I wasn't much taken by it and will likely not bother with more. We have a sheriff, Walt Longmire, in a small town in Wyoming, near a Cheyenne (I think) reservation. His best friend runs a bar and is a Native American (or Indian), Henry Standing Bear. He also has a young, potty-mouthed deputy, Victoria (Vic) Moretti, and some other "helpers".
The problem seems to be that some two years previously, a bunch of young punks raped and brutalized a young, special-needs (fetal alcohol syndrome) Indian woman. The boys were taken to trial, but essentially got off with little more than slaps on the wrist. Then one is found dead in what might vaguely be construed as a hunting accident. Oops, another is shot. So, Walt has to protect the remaining young men. Along the way, he begins a romance with a woman of his vintage (60-ish) who appears to be rich and artsy and stuff, but who might have a "dark" side. Oh, we also get a bunch of mystical appearances of Cheyenne apparitions who help Walt in his investigations, his tramping through blizzards, and so forth.
Well, it could have been an ok story, but I didn't much like any of the characters, nor the ways they interacted with each other. It all felt contrived so as to make things seem hip or modern or "western" or something. It didn't much feel "real" to me. Or, perhaps, despite being an Eagle scout, I'm just not rough 'n' ready enough to appreciate such behavior ... or something. Meh!
