I read all the time: first thing in the morning along with that first cup of coffee, now and then during the day taking a little time off from active working, and most evenings. Reading takes me out of myself and removes me from my worries and cares. It's my "sleeping pill" at night before I go to bed. So I read two or three books each week, mostly novels, once in a while a good book about food (Michael Pollan is a favourite author) or some other interesting topic (Gerard Diamond or Margaret Visser).
Recently I read a Stephen King book, 11/22/63 and it really struck a chord with me. That was the date, of course, on which JFK was assassinated. The story of book takes place in two time frames, the present, and the past beginning on September 9, 1958, and involves time travel between those two eras.
Now that really grabbed me! I've often pondered time travel, but always to the past. I've never had the desire to travel into the future. Life goes by quickly enough! But that particular time he chose, September 9, 1958, was particularly meaningful to me because that was the week that I started college. Would I like to find a "rabbit hole" to go back to that time?!!! Kill me with nostalgia!
So here are a few quotes from 11/22/63 that really grabbed me: page 157 "In America, where surface has always passed for substance...." Don't get all thorny at me for liking that. I'm allowed that opinion because I am an American citizen, born in the U.S.A., and grew up in New Jersey and Michigan. I've lived in Canada since 1967 except for a 4 1/2 year span spent in Oregon in the late 70's, early 80's. I think his comment is a fair criticism of American society, but I also think, because we find this to be true every time we go to the States, that there are many, many good and wonderful people there!
Another quote from that book: page 234 "Eat that, Elmore....There are cats starving in China...." (Elmore is his cat.) I laughed out loud when I read that, because I can remember sitting at the kitchen table as a child being told "There are children starving in China..." as an incentive to eat something that I'd rather leave on my plate.
And a third quote: page 517 "And seemingly from nowhere, the way crossword puzzle answers sometimes come to me, I remembered the name." That is exactly the reason that crossword puzzles appeal to me: that nifty feeling of a word floating up to consciousness, sometimes a word that I didn't even know I knew, a word that came from the periphery of my mind, deposited there without me even knowing it.
That, by the way is another of my reading interests: how the mind works. One of the best books I've read on that subject is The Brain That Changes Itself by Dr. Norman Doidge. Fascinating!
And now from a book that I just finished this morning, Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos, page 65, "Bach fugues....Music so complicated you could hear the math in it." Yes, music so structured that it satisfies the mind at the same time it fills the soul!
Once in a while you read something or someone says something that is exactly in tune with your personal view. Jim's niece's husband once remarked about a cup of vanilla ice cream that the best part was the spoonfuls of slightly melted slush around the edges. Exactly! But I didn't know that anyone else thought that!
Recently I read a Stephen King book, 11/22/63 and it really struck a chord with me. That was the date, of course, on which JFK was assassinated. The story of book takes place in two time frames, the present, and the past beginning on September 9, 1958, and involves time travel between those two eras.
Now that really grabbed me! I've often pondered time travel, but always to the past. I've never had the desire to travel into the future. Life goes by quickly enough! But that particular time he chose, September 9, 1958, was particularly meaningful to me because that was the week that I started college. Would I like to find a "rabbit hole" to go back to that time?!!! Kill me with nostalgia!
So here are a few quotes from 11/22/63 that really grabbed me: page 157 "In America, where surface has always passed for substance...." Don't get all thorny at me for liking that. I'm allowed that opinion because I am an American citizen, born in the U.S.A., and grew up in New Jersey and Michigan. I've lived in Canada since 1967 except for a 4 1/2 year span spent in Oregon in the late 70's, early 80's. I think his comment is a fair criticism of American society, but I also think, because we find this to be true every time we go to the States, that there are many, many good and wonderful people there!
Another quote from that book: page 234 "Eat that, Elmore....There are cats starving in China...." (Elmore is his cat.) I laughed out loud when I read that, because I can remember sitting at the kitchen table as a child being told "There are children starving in China..." as an incentive to eat something that I'd rather leave on my plate.
And a third quote: page 517 "And seemingly from nowhere, the way crossword puzzle answers sometimes come to me, I remembered the name." That is exactly the reason that crossword puzzles appeal to me: that nifty feeling of a word floating up to consciousness, sometimes a word that I didn't even know I knew, a word that came from the periphery of my mind, deposited there without me even knowing it.
That, by the way is another of my reading interests: how the mind works. One of the best books I've read on that subject is The Brain That Changes Itself by Dr. Norman Doidge. Fascinating!
And now from a book that I just finished this morning, Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos, page 65, "Bach fugues....Music so complicated you could hear the math in it." Yes, music so structured that it satisfies the mind at the same time it fills the soul!
Once in a while you read something or someone says something that is exactly in tune with your personal view. Jim's niece's husband once remarked about a cup of vanilla ice cream that the best part was the spoonfuls of slightly melted slush around the edges. Exactly! But I didn't know that anyone else thought that!
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