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Stumpage Reports
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Wednesday, May 07, 2003 :::
Literary Junk Food
When I was at the public library a couple days ago, I said to myself "I'm getting a really mindless book to read when I'm done with school." I suceeded beyond my wildest dreams. The King of Torts by John Grisham. I will admit it was readable, a real page-turner as they say. It was really formulaic, had big print and bigger margins, and the characters were caricatures. I wasn't suprised. I equate books like that with potato chips. They're not that good for you, you know what you're getting, and they go down easy. I don't know though. Either this book was so bad or I've attained some new standards. I kind of felt embarassed reading it in the privacy of my own home. I heard someone refer to books like this as the literary equivalent of masturbation: it feels good while you're doing it but you feel kinda guilty afterwards. I'm not going to touch that one.
Don't think I'm some kind of elitist snob, I bought two comic books today.
Next I'm going to try and read all 690 pages of Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution 1863 - 1877 by Eric Foner. Its not even for a class. Maybe reading that will wash the taste of Grisham right out of my brain.
Quote of the Day:
The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.
--- Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory: an Autobiography Revisited, 1947.
::: posted by tom at 11:15 PM
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