Monday, April 2, 2018

I read a lot 04-02-18

(I previously wrote about reading in one of my Saturday Stories.)


Born a reader, I guess.  My mother always claimed I could read long before anyone knew I could. One day before I was four I read a cereal box and astounded everyone.  Naturally, I couldn't read a book then, but I have made up for that in the last 76 years.  A constant in my childhood was "Put that book away and go out and play."  Which resulted in my finding places outside, or in the garage, to stash my books out of the rain and, with luck, a place to hide so I could read in peace.   During WWII when my sister and I lived with our paternal grandparents in Los Angeles, I would sneak onto the terraced level in the front yard which was planted with Lantana bushes and recline on a battered rug I found in the back alley.  I remember the Lantana because of the fragrance, which is still the smell of California to me.  


I'm not as avid as my friend Dick, who reads a book a day, I think.  He is a speed, speed reader, but I am just an average speed reader.  I can only read one book at a time, unlike another friend who always had a book in every room and in the car.  

I always feel fortunate to have a stack of books available when I go through my almost annual bronchitis.  This past month I have been reading Ian Rankin's detective series about Inspector Rebus, the entire set given to me when a friend had to clear out her bookshelves for interior painting.  Thank you, Carol.  The last time I was laid up I re-read all of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum adventures - she cracks me up.  Some books I just keep for reading again and again.  Ivan Doig is one of my favorites and he died this past year, so there will be no new wonders from his pen.  It is sad, I will miss his voice.  

Right now I am reading "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan, a non-fiction book about the great dust bowl of the 1930s and the people who survived and continued their struggles with the land and the weather.  It won the National Book Award in 2006.   The book is giving me an entirely different view of Dahlhart, OK, which I drive through on US Hwy 54 from Carrizozo, NM, to Wichita, KS.  And I am seeing what a short span of time the Indians and cowboys reigned.  To think of all the western movies that come from that brief period in the history of the West.  Amazing.
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1 comment:

Diane Perin said...

I'm a big reader too. And Ivan Doig is a big big favorite. His last book is on my nightstand right now!