"Lite" Reading

There are times in life when all you want is something fun to read. I'm on vacation this week and found that deep, profound literature, or technical work related tomes were just out of the question as reading material. I discovered a light diverting "read" (on audio tape) to accompany me on my tasks this week - the Sookie Stackhouse stories of Charlaine Harris. I am by no means a devotee of vampires or other mythical creatures, but I have to admit I'm liking Sookie a human telepath and her unique set of friends, family, and enemies. I started with a set of short stories on a playaway book device, (These books only require a pair of earphones plugged in and you are all set and good to go. Great for walking, or keeping you company while doing housework, gardening, or my favorite needlepoint) and have moved on to another,  Dead and Gone. One other factor to liking this book series may be the performance given by the narrator, Johanna Parker. She has a gentle Southern accent for Sookie, and "voices" for the other characters.

My plan for the day includes work in the yard (thank God it is finally sunny and warm) and following Sookie on her journey of battling evil vampires out for her blood, the love interest (also a vamp) who is after her blood and more, and the evil fairies who want to punish her for being who she is. What fun!

Asimov Write's Mysteries?

In keeping with my resolution not to buy books this year, I've been spending more time amid the stacks of my local library. Lo and behold there I discovered something I did not know - Isaac Asimov wrote mystery stories! I was first introduced to Asimov by a friend during my freshman year of high school when she encouraged me to read his Foundation series. I continued to read several other sci-fi novels and short stories by Asimov, therefore, it was a pleasant surprise to discover his "Black Widowers" mysteries. Many of the stories in his Puzzles of the Black Widowers originally appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

I'm currently on vacation this week and enjoyed reading this collection of stories over the past two days. I needed a break from "serious" literature or work related reading matter.

Still Reading

I started this blog around the New Year with every intention that it was to become a resolution of sorts. As with all resolutions or goals, life takes over and they are thrust onto the back burner. The urge to write has come upon me today. I've already completed a quick post to my "gardening blog." I find myself with the time to write today as I enjoyed yesterday's snow day from work getting caught up with household and work related chores. Finding myself with time today, I don't know what to do. Can't work in the yard because I must wait for the new snow to melt and the mud to firm up again. The house doesn't need as much attention because I cleaned yesterday. I have time to spend with my books and my writing.

Speaking of reading, I find myself drawn lately to light material. Fun things to read. Nothing too challenging. Perhaps I want the escape from my world into a different life. Jasper Fforde's new Thursday Next book was a fun read (actually a fun listen as I took it out of the library as an audio book). I just finished Alexander McCall Smith's The World According to Bertie  a continuation of his 44 Scotland Street series. I had started reading it a while back and found the character of Irene, Bertie's mother, so exasperating that I had to put the book down. Perhaps it is because I have met some of those mothers in the real world. Talk about your helicopter parent. This woman is a Black Hawk. I am sticking to my resolution of not buying any new books and I am continuing to make it through the collection of books that I have here so I sat down to finish this one in spite of Irene and her shenanigans. Makes you sympathize with the children of these types of parents. Just when I start to worry I don't work hard enough at being a parent I read an example of over the top parenting and realize I am doing a damn fine job with my children.

Reading of Art

I finished reading Susan Vreeland's Luncheon of the Boating Party this morning. In the vein of other recent novels, Vreeland has taken a famous painting and given us a back story about its creation and insight into the subject of the painting. Auguste Renoir is on the cusp of a turning point in his career. He has been challenged by Emile Zola's words about Impressionism being dead. Renoir decides to take on painting a large work that will depict la vie moderne. A painting of fourteen figures grouped around dining tables enjoying the well deserved break of a summer Sunday afternoon. 

As Vreeland describe the setting, the models, and their placement I would constantly flip from the text to look at the cover of the book. I matched the story's depiction to the painting itself. I was engrossed in watching the painting develop as the story unfolded.

To be very honest, I had bought this book some time ago, and began reading it but could only get one chapter in when the story lost my attention. I picked it up a second time, but only made it one chapter further. Perhaps a third times a charm, or the right book comes along at the right time for the reader. This story was the one I needed at this moment. I lost myself in the history of Montmarte and the artists and people who inhabited that world. I enjoyed the beauty of the Seine's riverside in late August and early September. I needed that in the dead of a snowy, cold New England winter.

 The painting is now housed at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.

Book lists

While reading, I'm always interested to see what books authors recommend or refer to in their work. I've begun a reading list of titles or authors that I see repeatedly mentioned. For example, how often do you see a "classical" work refered to and think "I really should read that one day." There are only so many hours in a day so one way I get more "reading" in is to listen to books on tape. I still call them that because when I first discovered them they came on cassette tapes, now they are on CD or these little things call play-aways. I can even down load titles from the library website to my iPod. Isn't technology wonderful?

Anyways to get back to my point. When I read The Happiness Project at the beginning of the month, Rubin had a section on spiritual development and had asked readers of her blog to suggest books of inspirational quality. One such reader suggested Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones as a Zen approach to writing and life. Now I had seen that title mentioned in many other texts recommending it as a good choice for help with learning to improve one's writing. I promptly requested it from the interlibrary loan service (see I am sticking to my resolution about buying books) and it arrived this past Saturday.

Where's this going? In the car I am listening to Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, a memoir of his time in Paris. Always meant to read more Hemingway and finally getting to it. Then I start reading Goldberg's book and she quotes Hemingway from this very piece of work. Serendipity is what I call it. Is it merely by chance that right now I am focused on writing and developing the art myself that I am drawn to these titles? The Hemingway book I picked because the library had two titles on the audiobook shelf and the other I've read before, the Goldberg book because I keep seeing the title everywhere. Again perhaps it is simply serendipty, the phenomenon of finding something agreeable when you least seek to.

Gratitude for the Gift of Reading

The most recent fictional work I have read is Diane Johnson's Lulu in Marrakech. (Author of Le Mariage and Le Divorce both of which I have read.) Lulu, our heroine, is a human intelligence agent for an unnamed American agency (most likely the CIA) who is on assignment in Morocco. Her purpose there is to discover how money flows from "legitimate" charities to terrorist organizations, while her cover is to gather information about literacy programs in the country.

While visiting a school for girls out in the area around Marrakech, Lulu enters into a discussion with the program's administrator. The administrator comments, "I'm committed to girls reading. Not everyone agrees" (p. 82). To which Lulu thinks the following, "It was hard to imagine a life without being able to read - the situation for three quarters of women and girls in rural areas of Morocco. If you couldn't read, you'd have to wait for people to tell you things - how unreliable that would be!" (p. 83)

I was so struck by that passage. How often do I forget how lucky I am to live in a country where education for women is not limited? I'm grateful that my daughter has the opportunity to learn and use her knowledge. How often do we forget and take for granted such simple things in life? It was a reminder to champion the cause of promoting literacy here and abroad.

Happiness on the Mind

Perhaps 2011 is the year of happiness, or is it that New Year's Resolutions have been focused on happiness? Everywhere I turn it seems to me that I see books or magazine covers spouting about happiness and the pursuit thereof. Then again perhaps because I am looking to improve my contentment with life that my eyes have been opened to the happiness movement.

I purchased the most recent copy of Real Simple magazine because the sunflower and headline caught my eye (By the way I bought it before my resolution not to buy books went into effect. Do magazines count?). In the article about happiness, Gretchen Rubin and her Happiness Project book are mentioned. What really caught my attention was Marcia Menter's article, "The history of happiness." She mentioned that the Declaration of Independence states all men have the right to "the pursuit of happiness." Jefferson had it right when he wrote about the pursuit of happiness. We may or may not achieve happiness, but often the best part of life is looking for happiness and pursuing it. How many times have we pursued something only to find that the attainment of it isn't nearly as satisfying? The pursuit of happiness (or any goal or tangible item) teaches us to think long and hard about what it is we really want. Through the pursuit we may learn new skills, make new friends, and push ourselves a little harder than we thought possible. I'm looking for that kind of growth right now in my life. I desire the feeling that comes from working at something and achieving it. "Contentment - the feeling of satisfaction with one's possessions, status, or situation (Webster's)" that's what I'm pursuing right now in my life.