Barefoot by Elin Hildebrand

Yesterday I did something I can't remember ever having done before-- I opened a new book to read at 4PM and finished it by midnight!

I seldom read novels, preferring instead the nitty gritty of stories drawn from "real life." However, this novel was a fun, light read- although the story of one of the heroines struggling with chemo treatments was a bit heavy-- but just imagining a summer on Nantucket was what I needed amid all this cold and snow!

The ending of the story was less satisfying. The young Nantucket man who saved the day by becoming the family's babysitter for two little boys, in the end seemed cast off with a paycheck and a great big "Thanks- we couldn't have done it without you" spiel. From a conflict perspective-- the ending pointed out class differences; from a structural-functionalist perspective-- the ending simply ended; and from a symbolic-interactionist perspective-- the ending showed how each character, in a different stage of life, placed meaning in his or her summer experiences.

"Obligatory" Reading

Every once in a while I start reading what I think I "should" read, and that's usually something that may not have caught my attention in the first place. It may be a book that I feel I "should" read because "everyone" is reading, or perhaps because The President is reading it-- and I feel that I should read the same so as to know what words, ideas, and stories that are filling his mind. That's what's going on with me right now as I try to muddle through Jonathan Franzen's Freedom. I'm only in Chapter 2, so I should reserve judgment. The saving grace is that I'm reading it on my Nook-- that nifty little e-reader from Barnes & Noble (honestly, this is NOT a paid advertisement!). Sophia got me hooked on it as we shopped around before she went on her 100 mile hike. City girl that she is, she could sleep in the wild but needed her Nook for nightly reading while bears, and other wildlife, I'm sure were watching from afar! I didn't think I would ever like e-readers, but honestly, I love it! I've loaded several books on it waiting to be read, and I carry it around in my bag. It's great for travelling, and I've even loaded tons of pdf files (required reading for the dissertation). I'm hooked on the Nook-- so even if the Franzen book takes a while to read, at least I can "Nook-it!"

Frenzied Reading

My daughters (and my son) are impressive readers! they have read War and Peace, Anna Karenina, or Pride and Prejudice...all those impressive books I have not read. I read shorter works because I don't have the attention span or the discipline to read those tomes. I tend to be an obsessive-compulsive reader-- when I begin a book it's hard for me to stop reading until it's done. Reading a book interferes with my life because I stop doing what I should be doing, and simply read and read and read... it's as though I can't go on with my normal life until I've finished the book! That's why I'm enjoying Eat, Pray, Love because the author is also obsessive-compulsive like me, but she's taken a year out of her life to travel and find herself. Right now I'm on the part where she's in the Ashram in India-- a community of yoga practitioners who meditate, perform selfless service, and experience getting to know themselves. Having just started yoga as a form of exercise, I can only imagine what that experience must be like. Some people can savor a book and make it last longer. It provides that escape into another world. I can't-- my reading style tends to be to devour a book, to consume it until it is over and done. Perhaps someday I'll develop the discipline to go more slowly and relish the tale... but for now, I am driven to a frenzy to read, read, read!