Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
A Lifetime of Book
I’ve been reading this book for twenty years.
Not really. It’s only been a month.
I used to read fat books in a week, sometimes just days, because I am a fast reader and able to ignore most obligations. But lately, I’ve been overtaken by thinking I always need to be doing something useful. Reading a book doesn’t fall in that category. I don’t know why.
My major professor in graduate school was a tall Texan who smoked a pipe and drank quite a lot. He would call a break in his three-hour urban history class so those of us so interested could find respite in the campus bar. The other students waited for our return, their disgust palpable. How could we go drinking during class time? I don’t know. I just followed him to the bar like a small thirsty puppy.
Anyway, this professor lived a life of the mind (and the pipe and the shot glass). He wrote poetry and knew all the words to Pomp and Circumstance which he sang to me at my graduation. He lived with his wife and her mother in a grand house on the river. His mother in law stayed unimpressed by him her entire life, once remarking in response to a student’s admiration for the professor’s brilliance, “Of course he’s smart, all he does is read all day.”
And that is my point. Or my lament. First of all, could I become smart if all I did was read all day? And second, will reading Stephen King make me smart or do I have to read War and Peace? I ask these questions as someone who read all nine books in the Outlander series as a way to avoid hysteria during the pandemic’s darkest days. I’ve considered giving them away now that the extraordinary threat seems to have waned but I’m loathe to surrender them. For obvious reasons. Anything can happen.
Instead of writing this, I could be reading. I could finally put to bed Jake’s weird time travel through Al’s Diner and find out if he prevented the tragedy of 11/22/63. But look at me, so focused on doing something useful. Yeah.
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Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
That was one of the few Kind novels I really loved!
KING, NOT KIND!!
It took me FOREVER to finish it but i finally did. Phew.
It was very well written and NOT horror. Garry read it too. I hated the TV series.
I love to read but I understand that it doesn’t often feel like a “useful” way to spend large amounts of time when there are other, more important, tasks. Now that I’m retired and it has become easier to ignore all the things I have to do, I’m reading more and enjoying it without the guilt. Your professor sounds like a hoot.
Having two sisters as avid readers, I appreciate this. And having put off reading for so many years with 4 bookshelves full of books (and a few boxes), I still look forward to reading more books. I so appreciate the many books I read in college and beyond: 1984; On the Road; Bible; … Still enjoy reading the local newspaper to keep me in shape. And now that I’m back in the ministry, I’m reading a bit more again. Thanks, Jan!
Thanks for today’s blog. I think reading is one of the most important things I can do! And I read the first four books of the OUTLANDER series back in 1997 during spring break from school. So important.
I’m glad you find sharing your wisdom useful. Your writing is useful to me… BTW, I liked King’s 11/22/63.
I used to read A LOT. Then there was this thing called life……… Now I pick up a book to read and I find that so many stories are ones I’ve heard before in some familiar iteration. Is it just me, or has every really good story been told and now we simply get an inferior retelling? Or am I just cranky and picky…
I loved this! I go through times of reading lots everyday to times of reading only 10 to 15 minutes per day.