A delusion? Is that a bad thing?
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Saturday, December 8, 2007
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Relax And Read
The title of this post should be the new name for this blog. After all my extreme commute is really just a big read. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is quoted as saying: "In reality the duty of a writer - the revolutionary duty, if you like - is that of writing well.'' Such is the duty of the reader also. To read material that is written well.
Today I think schools are doing us an injustice by encouraging us to just read anything, anything is better than nothing. I disagree. Reading alot of anything = nothing.
What then, Mister Smarty Pants me, what do I propose people read? Well start with all those books in high school that you got the Cliff Notes for. It's difficult to read books like Love In The Time Of Cholera first time out, just like it is difficult to jog when you first start exercising. But with practice you will eventually not only enjoy the classics but end up reading Proust and have it make sense to you. OK, maybe not Chaucer, but with some good footnotes why even Shakespeare is understandable and will make you laugh, hardy har har.
Reading recommendations for the long ride?
A daily newspaper but one of the national ones like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. And read those stories from Asia, South America, Europe and The Middle East. That is our new global community. The local news you can pick up at home off the computer to see who shot who and who got busted for drugs and who got smashed in a car.
Periodicals like The New Yorker or The New York Review Of Books or The Economist.
Non-fiction - Jacques Barzun's From Dawn To Decadence
Fiction - Love In The Time Of Cholera By Gabriel Garcia Marquez (also a current movie)
Listening?
I like stuff like Wyclef Jean's Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill) but that's just me and I have unusual musical tastes for a middle age white man. Also any symphonies by Beethoven, Dvorak, etc. And some Norah Jones for measure.
Podcast? Selected Shorts from NPR
Today I think schools are doing us an injustice by encouraging us to just read anything, anything is better than nothing. I disagree. Reading alot of anything = nothing.
What then, Mister Smarty Pants me, what do I propose people read? Well start with all those books in high school that you got the Cliff Notes for. It's difficult to read books like Love In The Time Of Cholera first time out, just like it is difficult to jog when you first start exercising. But with practice you will eventually not only enjoy the classics but end up reading Proust and have it make sense to you. OK, maybe not Chaucer, but with some good footnotes why even Shakespeare is understandable and will make you laugh, hardy har har.
Reading recommendations for the long ride?
A daily newspaper but one of the national ones like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. And read those stories from Asia, South America, Europe and The Middle East. That is our new global community. The local news you can pick up at home off the computer to see who shot who and who got busted for drugs and who got smashed in a car.
Periodicals like The New Yorker or The New York Review Of Books or The Economist.
Non-fiction - Jacques Barzun's From Dawn To Decadence
Fiction - Love In The Time Of Cholera By Gabriel Garcia Marquez (also a current movie)
Listening?
I like stuff like Wyclef Jean's Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill) but that's just me and I have unusual musical tastes for a middle age white man. Also any symphonies by Beethoven, Dvorak, etc. And some Norah Jones for measure.
Podcast? Selected Shorts from NPR
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