9:31 p.m. - 2002-09-01
Book Reviews
I don't read anywhere near as much as I used to for personal pleasure. It isn't that I don't enjoy it as much as I did, but essentially my whole work day consists of reading, research, and writing. When I get home I spend time with my guys and on the internet or phone trying to maintain the relationships that matter to me. Weekends tend to be taken up with errands, homemaker duties, and time with my siblings and Father.
When I do have time, I find that my choices are significantly different from when I was an at home mom. In those days most of my pleasure reading was technical - the "hard sciences" like physics and the biosciences or social sciences like psychology, spirituality, and philosophy - or classical literature like Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Tolstoy, the great poets and so forth. The theory was that it would save my brain from turning into mush. I even read my encyclopedias from end to end because the articles were short enough that I could fit them in between diaper changes. Between running a day home and volunteering in my sons' schools there was a real danger of not having the ability to string two adult sentences together some days. It isn't that raising children isn't challenging. Lord knows that it is one of the toughest, least appreciated tasks a person can take on - working outside the home is a piece of cake in comparison. But communicating with non-parenting/teaching adults became a real challenge - no common ground of experience. Therefore I tried to communicate through ideas instead. I'm not certain that it was all that successful as most people don't get too excited about the latest theories in quantum mechanics - can't understand it.
Nowadays, I'm quite happy to settle for good character sketches, a light romance or a good mystery. The reason is partly that I fall asleep if the subject matter is too heavy - the concentration factor is burned out during the day - but also because I find I need to be entertained without it requiring too much interaction from me.
I've picked up a couple of books by Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist and The Pilgrimage - that are deceptively simple narratives of a person's search for enlightenment that in retrospect are quite thought provoking. Parables for today.
Mary Stewart has been a favorite author since my teens. She used to write mystery stories, then wrote the series "The Crystal Cave" based on the Aurthurian legends. Her last book was a light romance. Odd in its approach but quite satisfying.
My favorite mystery writer right now is Tony Hillerman. He writes from the perspective of a Navajo police officer. I find his approach enjoyable for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, there is a line in a Jarvis Church song (She's in Love With You) that goes "the things we see don't have to be on purpose but they're never just because" that might be the underlying theme of all Mr. Hillerman's stories. He uses the Navajo culture as an example of a pattern of thoughts and behavior that is an interconnecting web among all his characters. The mysteries are solved by finding the broken threads in the pattern or the anomalies that don't fit. The psychology of human behavior appeals to me more than the action/gore style mystery that seems to be more prevalent thesse days.
Secondly, he highlights the power of the culture any individual lives in to drive one's actions and thoughts in ways we rarely perceive. He is able to subtly compare and contrast the Navajo culture with the Hopi or the Western North American cultures without being either preachy or too much the academic/anthropologist.
Finally, because I am eternally nosy, I get to learn how and why another group of people make the choices they do. It's the question that has forever driven me ever since I was old enough to think. Mr Hillerman's stories are first of all entertaining but if you want to think beyond a good pot boiler the opportunity is there for that too.
I really miss the more technical reading in the subjects that fascinate me but there is always a purpose in everything that happens. I guess I'll just wait to see the "whys" when the time comes.
�
�
