Today’s guest post comes from Sherrilee
I am a reader. Many things define my life; I am a single mother, an organizer, a cook, a friend. But at my core, I am a reader. I read every day and I spend more time than you can imagine keeping track of what I’m reading, what I have out from the library, what I have requested from the library. If I could figure out a way to have someone else pay the bills, shovel the snow, cut the grass and buy the groceries, I would be perfectly content to spend my days reading. On the sofa, laying in the hammock or sitting on a park bench – all wonderful places to read.
I used to have to finish any book I started. For years it plagued me that I had started Ulysses after my freshman year in college and had never been able to plow through it. While I still struggle through a few books, these days a book has to grab me pretty quickly. There have been books that I give up on after just a few pages and occasionally there is a book that I abandon half way through because I realize I’m just not enjoying it.
This past week I reread “The Earth Abides” by George Stewart. I read this book back in high school at the suggestion of one of my favorite teachers and it was the first “science fiction” that I recall reading. Ideas from it have stuck with me over the years, so when I noticed on the library website that a new edition has been rereleased, I checked it out. Not only did I enjoy it greatly after all these years, but it struck me on a more emotional level than I remember from first reading it and I cried towards the end.
There have been many books over the years that have made me cry. When I was in the 8th grade, I read “Flowers for Algernon”. I couldn’t put it down and started to cry early on, when it was clear what direction the story was going. I read until 4 in the morning and cried until I could hardly breathe and thought I might throw up.
“Doctor Zhivago” was another one. I had already seen the movie before I read the book and was unprepared for the emotion of Pasternak’s words. I cried for an hour.
So I’ve been thinking about the difference in books – why some grab you and why some don’t. A few years ago one of my book clubs read a book about 4 brothers and was filled with baseball and baseball analogies. All the other members of the club relished it from beginning to end and I had to work hard to get through it; every time the author started to bring baseball to the page, I started to glaze over. And I have a friend who cannot understand why anybody reads anything by Jasper Fforde, who is one of my favorite authors.
Even though the tears stuff me up and made my eyes puffy and read, I consider crying over a good book a great cathartic experience and I look forward to the next “cryer”.
When have words on a page affected you physically?
Trail Baboon 
I once dropped the hard-bound version of the plays of Shakespeare on my foot.
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Did you swear? That “bawdy, motley-minded rudesby”
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Clever answer to a swarming cheap response on my part to a good blog. But I do not know how to answer the question. Reducing my book collection by 75% has bot been a happy experience but I do not know that I have had a physical reaction to it. Hmm?
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That would be “cleaver”, kind sir. Watch your vocabulary!
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Forsooth methinkst I was loathe to thus speakest of yon cleaver and mine foot in but one breath.
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I second Flowers for Algernon for its poignancy. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was another that dissolved me into tears as a teenager, I recall. And I remember having to go for the kleenexes rather unexpectedly one morning on the bus on my way to work, while reading <A River Runs Through It.
David Sedaris and Douglas Adams are always good for making me laugh out loud.
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Pizzle rot. Sorry about the trailing italics.
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I just finished “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” and I agree.
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I happened to read last night an essay by Graham Greene with a collection of comments by famous novelists about the agony of writing a novel, the compulsion, the struggle, the worry, the all-consuming nature of the process. He claim,s I am sure completely incorrectly, that novelists are the only artists who struggle this valiantly with their craft.
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there is a different agony over wrestleing with your brain for the word than with your tool box for the correct chisels or the paint box for the right color to throw on the canvas. my guess is graham greene is a single element participant. i am sure artists of every genre agonize but word guys get to beat themselves up in a special way..
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Rise and Shine Baboons!
I had great difficulty learning to read, due to a mild learning disability combined with a history of being terrorized by my kindergarten teacher (1958, all day kindergarten, just days into being 5 years old, bitter Victorian old maid). Reading seemed to be just out of my reach. However, once I finally understood the system in 2nd grade following a change of schools, I started reading and never stopped. The pages of the book have been permanently connected to my heart strings since I conquered reading “Mabel the Whale.” Mabel was sunburned and vulnerable and needed to heal. That did it.
I read in fright, read in empathy, read in tears, read in anger, and read in nausea.
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Nice last line.
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Agreed. Great post. Incidentally, I had a “bitter Victorian old maid” teacher for second grade. She once made me feel so inferior (because she thought I misused language) that I walked home in the street, feeling it would be no loss to the world if a car hit me. I love people whose heart strings are connected to books.
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I had a librarian once tell me that a book I had chosen was much too advanced for me. I was in 5th grade and had picked “Hunchback of Notre Dame” off the shelf. I don’t remember why — most likely the title just appealed to me. She was probably correct about it being advanced for me but her words were like that proverbial red flag in front of a bull. I remember telling her that I had enjoyed it when I turned it back in after slogging through it.
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You are possibly old enough to remember when many librarians were sexually frustrated old biddies who saw their central role as protecting a library’s precious books from the undeserving, grubby-handed kids who might deface the pages.
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I think that’s the reason I’ve always remembered this is because it strikes me funny that a librarian would try to dissuade a kid from anything they wanted to try. I suppose this librarian didn’t know me well; when I was in 5th grade, we had just moved so I was new to the school. Earlier librarians at other schools would probably not have paid any attention since I was such a voracious reader, even back then.
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The last book that really resonated with me was “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet”
by Jamie Ford.
I read a murder mystery by an Australia writer that looked good on the shelf and was very well-written. I had to finish it. It was however, like a P.D. James detective story, so relentlessly bleak that it bothered me. “The (something) Shore”.
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Loved “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.” Wonderful writing.
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Just talked to my son last night. When we go to Seattle we are going to visit the International District and some of the specific locations in the book.
Ford studied writing under Orson Scott Card. Figure out that one. Which brings to mind “Ender’s Game.”
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Ender’s Game was good, but it made me cranky. That was one that I occasionally wanted to shout at the characters. I also recall talking to some of my women friends and we agreed that it is a book that is definitely a “boy” book, if you will pardon the gender-ism.
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“Hotel” made me weepy as well….
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Totally unrelated, but triggered by free association:
Have you ever read any Fred Chapell? I’d recommend “I Am One of You Forever” followed by “Brighten the Corner Where You Are.”
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I will check it out after our move. Thanks.
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Bill – do you have a copy of “I Am One of You Forever” — Hennepin County doesn’t have a copy any longer.
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My copy seems to be missing as well. But now that I’m thinking about it, It’s definitely worth replacing. Same is true for “Brighten the Corner.”
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This will likely come as no surprise, but a book that is clever with its wordplay and can make me laugh out loud – that’s a keeper. Extra points for making me laugh so hard when trying to explain to someone else why I’m laughing that I can’t talk. “Fool” and “Lamb” by Christopher Moore (which introduced me to the epithet, “f*ckstockings”), the early Janet Evanovich/Stephanie Plum books, most anything by Jasper Fforde, David Sedaris, the Garrett mysteries by Glen Cook (it’s a fantasy series, with a noir twist)…you get the idea. I know a book is really good when I have to be selective about reading in bed lest I wake up Husband with a guffaw. A cleansing cry can be good, too – but something that makes me giggle is tops for me.
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I don’t cry much when reading, but the last book I shed a tear upon while reading was, believe it or not, “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett. The quiet dignity and determination and ultimate moral triumph of the women was an emotional gut punch.
I read a Dave Barry book years ago that had me laughing so hard I was crying. Try explaining that to your wife!
:The Call of the Wild” by Jack London always chokes me up during the scene where Buck pulls the impossibly heavy sled down the street of the mining town to win a bet for his owner. The only time I’ve EVER wanted to own a dog. But it would have to be Buck.
Chris in Owatonna
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I thoroughly enjoyed “The Help” when I read it – one of those books I became so engrossed in I forgot where I was for a long space of time.
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my irish heratage remind me of the line goes on to say something about raging into balttle and weeping through a good book or movie. i am a crier. the flowers for algernon story made me cry because of the story and also because of my cousin tom jones who died a year ago at age 60 after a lifelong bout with knowing he was different but no quite knowing what that meant. his brother dan who is my age had the task of bringing tom along and trying to live a life that worked for both of them. easy at age 4, 5 10, bu t the challange after that was too much and tom was shopped around looking for a spot where the care was respectful and kind. weepies for sure. the pat conroy collection is almost always full of a tear or two with the heart wrencing stuff he builds his stories around. i have the best intentions and a book case in my bedroom taking up one wall to match which speak out to my hope to get to all the good books half read books on the shelves. i asked edward ablee why he always wrote about such disfunctional families and he replied that to write about a family where everything was going fine would be really boring. i agree that the way to crank it up a notch is to get the pain of relationships with loved ones into the stories.
my daughters a re picking up the torch. i have one who studies at the loft and loves reading and writing. her connection with words i a wonderful thing to see. my youngest daughter just had to sign up for jr high english and upon my checking the advanced english course offers the ability to read at home and discuss in school rather than reading and discussing at school. twice as many boos covered and better conversations. she bit. she committed to read an hour or two a day . we will see how that goes. i ma hoping. i joined pen pals 15 years ago when the started up and i have gotten to see and meet a number of wonderful book people. it is an odd mix of folk that choose to write. we try to mix it up and have a fiction non fiction poet playwright and then the interesting ones like tim obrien who writes beautiful stories based on his interpratation of the stuff going on around him. the wordsmithing is a searched for element for me to cintinue with an author through the end of the book. out of africa we are reading right now is a wonderful example of wordsmithing. thanks steve. both authors have a mastery of the language that is motovational enough to keep you going. i read lots and lots but i am a bit of a millenium people magazine type. i read stuff in blips on the internet and cant stop but one thing leads to another and another and three hours late the line has drifted off and i am no closer to my goal but wasnt that interesting. enriching your life and simply spending it are the fine lines i deal with too often. i love a good cry and will hope to find more time for that this year. . thanks sherrilee. .
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When I was a sophomore in high school, I read a book that made me laugh so loud I got kicked out of “Study Hall.” The book was The Education of Hyman Kaplan. Hyman Kaplan is an adult language student, born in Kiev and a native speaker of Yiddish, who struggles to learn English. He is also a fascinating character with a strong moralistic sense about the rules of language and society. He signs himself H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N in colored crayon, a different color for each letter, with stars between. His many problems with English provide most of the giggles. Hyman, for example, had shoes with “robber hills” (rubber heels). I laughed so hard I nearly peed myself, which would have counted as words on a page affecting my physically.
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getting kicked out of study hall for responding to reading material is exactly why i had a hard time with education in the 60’s 70’s. i will look up hyman kaplan.
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Leo Rosten, holds doctorate from U of Chi. His “Joy of Yiddish” is a wonderful read. Wrote a couple decent movies.
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is there an easy way to put a book list together on the bbc? add stuff as it comes to mind. you guys are always suggesting things and i have a great memory but its so short i can never remember what it was when the time comes.
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A list would be good. Or you could just ask Linda. In my experience, she has a memory like a computer for just about anything that is mentioned on these pages. She’s amazing.
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I’m not on a par with Linda, but my personal list has LOTS of TBB books on it. I am hard pressed to not go looking for titles when you all mention them. I’ve enjoyed most of the books mentioned on the Trail – have especially enjoyed some of the travel books that Clyde has mentioned over the years. Just finished the one about the guy who kayaked around Ireland a couple of weeks ago. Amazing.
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Good morning. Currently I am more drawn to non-fiction books. I do like fiction and still do some fiction reading. Some of the best non-fiction I have read in the last few years are the writings of Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky.
Howard Zinn’s book on American history has become somewhat well know and should be more widely read to give a us a better perspective on our history which is much different from what we were taught in school.
Many people have tried to discredited Chomsky’s massive work on educating the public about the failures of our government policies. This is a shame because his penetrating views of the bad behavior of our government should be better know.
The more truthful and disturbing picture of our history and government policies that Zinn and Chomsky portray can leave you feeling very depressed. However, their books can also lead you to a better understanding of the world in which we live.
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No book has had the impact on me of this book, a work of non-fiction
The Lost: a Search for Six in Six Million, by Daniel Mendelsohn. (2006)
Here’s what I wrote about it elsewhere.
http://birchwoodhill.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/this-land-is-their-land/
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Here’s the thing about books:
My second-grade grandson, Mr. Tuxedo (which he still wears around the house now and then) is about to finish book 4 of Harry Potter. But Mr Tuxedo will not go to scary movies, like animated ones either. My fdaughter asked him if he ever gets scared reading the books. He answered “Nah. Cause I know it’s just a book and I get to make my own pictures.”
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“I get to make my own pictures.” Wonderful.
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I agree with Mr. Tuxedo.
FWIW (which might not be much), when the s&h was Mr. Tuxedo’s age, there were some movies that we did not know where going to be scary until we were watching them. I got around sleepless nights by explaining how the techies managed to portray the scary and awful things. While some might say that ruins the magic, at our house, it has made a lot of movies far more enjoyable.
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Mr. Tuxedo does not make it even to the movies. He decides by the ads on TV. He would not go to Entangled. His sister is not much better. How the children of my daughter got that way is a mystery.
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Afternoon–
I haven’t found a good book lately. I get so buried just trying to keep up w/ newspapers and magazines and the one book I am working on (‘The Beauty of Light’ by Ben Bova) is fiction so not many tugging at the heart strings there.
John Irving has make me cry often. And any book with a home felt, rural theme will fill me with nostalgia. Can that be? I’m still here in the country, can I still have nostalgia about it?
Maybe I don’t have the right word…
Last week the big news was the snowplow driver reporting a strange vehicle at a neighbors place, then three sheriff deputies and a police K9 unit trailing the suspects 3 miles over the river and through the wood — over hill and dale before catching and arresting the pair. Turns out they are ‘well known scrappers’ to the law enforcement community.
We’re concerned if they had their eyes on our place next. Too close for comfort. What was funny was the sheriff deputy who took part in the chase called me to tell me about it. He was so excited he was still out of breath. Said those K9 handlers are in good shape. But at least they have a little engine pulling them up the hills while this guy was on his own.
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Regarding books with a rural theme, though not fiction, have you read Bill Holm’s essays?
Or Verlyn Klinkenberg’s?
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Doh! I meant ‘Non-fiction’ for the Ben Bova…
Yes, I have most of Bill Holm’s books; they are good. I am not familiar with Veryln Klinkenberg; I’ll look nim up.
And I know some Robert Bly and some Leo Dangel.
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Ben, a nice Klinkenborg (I think that is the spelling) book is Making Hay, which is a series of essays about the making of alfalfa.
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You are probably right about the spelling, Steve; I admit to having been uncertain and just too lazy to go upstairs and double check. Klinkenborg’s book, “Rural Life” is also good, as is “The Last Fine Time”.
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You should also check out Will Weaver. His “Gravestone Made of Wheat” was made into the movie “Sweet Land.” As often is the case, the original story was good, the movie OK, but kind of a hash.
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Also Noel Perrin – First Person Rural: Essays of a Sometime Farmer.
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It just ocurred to me… have you read any Michael Perry? He’s an EMT and a small-time farmer in mid-Wisconsin. “Population 485” is about his experience as a rural EMT. “Truck” is about restoring an International Harvester pickup, plus various oblique life events. Subsequent books are “Coop” and “Visiting Tom.” Perry is personable, amusing and insightful. I think you’d like him.
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Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I’ve created a reading list for them.
I think I have read ‘Population 485’; it sounds familiar. I didn’t know he had other books though. It was a long time ago I read that…
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Emotional catharsis is not something I seek out; life seems to offer a sufficiency. I read a lot, but seldom read pure fiction anymore. Mysteries never held much appeal for me. I made my way through most of the Tony Hillerman books amd most of the Ellis Peters Brother Cadfael series as well, but I think in those books the murder mystery was not the main attraction.
I tend to read in “clumps”. For a couple of years, I read almost exclusively from a group of authors I called “The Johns”. John Irving, John Cheever, John Gardner, John Updike, John Nichols. Then I went through a phase where I read my way through the Latin American authors: Marquez, Allende, Amado, Llosa. I spent about a year reading little but Scottish history and historical fiction, the fictional part being a little narrative gloss on the actual history.
For the last decade or so, about seventy-five percent of my reading has pertained in some way to the nineteenth century. Little of that has been directly about the Civil War. Instead, I read biographies, histories, memoirs and studies about whatever and whomever captures my curiosity. That includes theatre, utopian experiments, spiritualism, abolitionism, satirical humor, social commentary, bohemian enclaves, and precolumbian archaeology. I tend to read more than one book on a given topic; in doing so, you begin to be able to objectively evaluate each author/researcher’s point of view. My overarching wish is to be able to begin to see the nineteenth century as a network of interrelated connections rather than a sequence of isolated and unconnected individuals and episodes. Since the books I read tend not to be commonly found in public libraries, or in print at all, and since I like to be able to refer back to them, I usually own the copies I read.
The remaining twenty-five percent of my reading goes mostly to science, travel, and food writing.
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Your reading habits are fascinating, Bill. I think they might be a little more common than you suspect. Anyone who reads with genuine interest in the topic is likely to fall into your pattern of reading in related clusters. I’ve mentioned before that the two books recommended for the next Blevins meeting (Out of Africa and West With the Night) are brilliant evocations of Kenya in the time from just before WWI up almost until WWII. A third book that comes from that same period and place is White Mischief. A fourth, not as marvelous, is Hunter by John Hunter, a safari guide from the same place and time.
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Scary to read this, Bill. Wow, are we alike. I could have written every word of htis except the last two words. Wow.
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I also went through a phase where I read mostly “cowboy books.” Larry McMurtrey, Cormac McCarthy (though he was a little too dark for me), Ivan Doig (I loved “Dancing at Rascal Fair”), I suppose Stegner’s “Angle of Repose” qualifies as well. I even tried a Louis Lamour. Yuck! What awful writing!
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I forgot to add Ron Hansen, author of “Desperadoes” and “The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford.” Fine books, both of them.
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My dad, who was really intelligent, loved Louis Lamour and Edgar Rice Burroughs. He read Scientific American but his fiction reading was the pits.
I went through a phase about 10 years ago in which I couldn’t get enough of cheap mysteries. I would search them out at the bookstore and then try to find them at the library. The same template for every darn one. I’m not sure what this was all about but after about a year and a half, I was reading the first few pages of another one and realized that I not only knew who was going to get murdered, but I knew who the murderer was. And the murder hadn’t even happened yet. That cured me!
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Angle of Repose I always thought should be called Angel of Repose. Right after I read it a couple years ago, I ended up in the place where the mercury mine had been by San Jose, now a county park. I love his Wolf Willow about his childhood.
I, too felt compelled to read a L’Amour, so I picked the one that is set in the country east of San Diego where I have done a bit of touristing/exploring. The book was so far-fetched it was astounding in every way. Terribly written. Impossible events. But somehow that story has stuck with me. His sort of autobiography is interesting, a quick read.
Larry McMurty was a book dealer as well as a writer. He has a wonderful book about his book dealing life and one good travel book. Love the movie The Last Picture Show, which I think is as fine a movie as has been made. But I could not read the book.
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A book that had some emotional section which I read not too long ago is Turn Here, Sweet Corn by Atina Diffley about her experiences as a small scale vegetable producer. The original site of the place she and her husband farmed in Egan, Minnesota was named Gardens of Egan. It was completely taken over by urban sprawl destroying the farm land and surrounding natural area that had been owned by the Diffleys and their relatives for many years. Atina made it clear that the conversion of their wonderful farmstead into a subdivision was a very dreadful event.
The loss of the farm was follow by an intensive effort to keep the vegetable growing operation going on rented land and to search for land to establish a new farm. They did find some land to buy and then had to go through an extremely stressful time when their farm was threatened by a plan to build a pipe line through the center of the farm. There is a great celebration when they manage to stop the pipe line and save the farm. I think this is the kind of book that might cause you to shed a few tears in the most emotional parts, VS.
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Jim – I did read this last year. I did like it quite a bit, especially since I’ve enjoyed foods from Gardens of Eagen for years. But I don’t remember any tears.
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From Music Man to It’s a Wonderful Life to Last of the Summer Wine: I love kidding my ex-librarian wife about the cliched sexually unfulfilled librarians.
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Where was she a librarian, Clyde – in what setting?
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Children’s librarian, and brilliant at it, in Two Harbors.
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That’s always been one of my favorite songs. Thanks Holly for yet again, finding the perfect song and video.
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The dour librarians who planted their bodies between me and the adult books in our library looked nothing like Marion!
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Speaking of books that had a physical effect, Robin just finished a book called “Let’s Pretend This Never Happened” by Jenny Lawson, known online as “The Bloggess.” Robin kept me awake ’til all hours snorting and guffawing.
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Sounds fun — it’s now on my request list. I actually thought about this problem before I offered this piece to Dale – that iit would probably increase my Request List at the library beyond the number of requests that I’m allowed!!!
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I love to read books that make me laugh or make me cry. I don’t particularly like reading anything violent (get kind of nauseous), and will not knowingly read horror. That said, we “accidentally” picked Stephen King’s “Cell” as an audio book for a road trip, and were completely enthralled – could hardly wait to get in the car again each morning.
I was reading, if I found an author I liked, every book by that person. Lately I’ve started dabbling – let’s see what just one book by __________ is like… If I absolutely fall in love, I’ll get another.
And I love reading books about women’s lives. But recently I started thinking, why not read about some men’s lives – fiction or memoir. Any “must reads”, Babooners?
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A good author for a male perspective is Michael Chabon. “The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Klay” and “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union” are both male-centered novels, but are not testosterone laden plots. I loved them both. A good non-fiction book (especially if you are a fan of words), is “The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary.” The sub-title helps explain – it’s about the creation of the OED and one if its main contributors was in an insane asylum. Read it on a long plane trip. Simon Winchester is the author on that one.
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I would pick up just about anything by Simon Winchester. I remember he did a reading at a church here in Minneapolis, not far from Birchbark Books a few years ago. I wasn’t able to go, but I have “The Professor and the Madman”, “The Map That Changed the World,” Krakatoa,” and “The Crack in the Edge of the World and I’ve enjoyed them all.
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Here we go again, Bill. I have read everything by Winchester multiple times. Among the hardest books for me to give up. Several are in the books that I am bringing to tim.
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Clyde, have you read “The Man Who Loved China” (or something like that)? I have it, but have not yet read it.
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By whom?
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Oh, by Winchester. Missed that one.
I have not really read all his books but most. Do not want to read about Alice. Did not even know about the China, Krakatoa and Crack at Edge of World and this one are my favorites: Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire.
You may want to talk to tim about the books I am bringing up to him, except maybe not because he has not answered me about Wednesday when I am bringing them up. May have to just bring them to HF books.
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Simon Winchester. I guess, by your question, that you haven’t read it.
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The two books on the OED are surprisingly readable. Fascinating tales told very well. The Korea walking book is good, too.
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I also enjoyed “The Professor and the Madman” and “The Man Who Loved China”. In fact, last summer the Teenager had to read 4 non-fiction books for school and I encouraged her to try “The Man Who Loved China”. She made it through and was able to write a paper on it, but didn’t love it. She is NOT a big non-fiction fan.
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See my suggestions above to Ben regarding Michael Perry.
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I haven’t read it, Barbara, but it seems that one of the best books of the year is (Supreme Court Justice) Sonia Sotomayor’s memoir. It is at the top of the NYT best-seller list and is getting great reviews. In a few months you should be able to pick up a used copy reasonably.
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I wonder if the reason I’m now interested in reading about men’s lives is that I got a taste from reading the books by our two baboons, Clyde and Steve…
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I remember reading Camille in one sitting when I was in my late teens or early twenties. I started it one evening and couldn’t stop reading it till I finished it at around 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning. Disturbing and moving.
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Drive from Mankato to Evan (north of Sleepy Eye) after work today in a four-wheel drive pickup took a friend of our daughter’s 2.5 hours after work today.
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest had me laughing out loud at the beginning of the book; I felt like I had been sucker punched by the end. Wally Lamb’s I Know This Much is True is another heart wrenching story. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a very powerful book. I concur with many of the books listed by other baboons, especially Flowers for Algernon and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter stand out as gut wrenching. Bill Bryson and Dave Barry have both brought me to tears of laughter.
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Flowers and Heart is a Hunter were both filmed in the same year. Loved the book Flowers; was bothered by the movie. Loved the movie of Hunter, could not read the book. I would have given the Oscar to Alan Arkin for Hunter not Cliff Robertson. I have only seen one portrayal of a mentally handicapped person that worked for me and I hate to day this, but it was DiCaprio in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.
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I love book days here, baboons. Great post, VS.
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Missed your note Clyde on Wednesday what are you thinking?
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In 8th grade I “had” to read To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time. I wept deeply at the end. Both in Freshman and Sophomore years I “had” to read it again; the ending hit me with the same intensity, I remember a year or two later I read it again (this time just for me), and when I had finished and walked downstairs from my bedroom, my Mom looked at my soggy face and shirt, and asked kindly, “was it raining very hard upstairs?”
TKAM doesn’t end sadly, but beautifully. I didn’t want to leave them. I wanted to know what was going to happen the next day, next week…I missed the characters so much already, and the book was still in my hands.
Oh yes, sobbing over a book is a wonderful thing! I’ve wondered, too, why some books can grab us and others just can’t. Thanks for a wonderful blog!!
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Greetings! Wonderful posts, everyone and great topic, Sherrilee. I mainly read non-fiction but I go through phases of reading fiction. I remember a particularly wrenching moment of a spiritual book called “Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment” by Jed McKenna. He was describing a moment from the Bhagavid Gita when Arjuna fell the moment he realized the army he faced were his loved ones. And then the person he had to become in order to get back up and continue the fight to become enlightened. It’s difficult to describe the book and what this all means. But basically, in order to achieve true enlightenment and non-dual awareness you have to sever ALL attachments, ego, the layers of programming/beliefs/culture/connections, etc. You don’t just do away with the bad or negative stuff that gets in our way. Everything must go so we can build and start with only absolute truth.
That gut-wrenching realization that the people we love have to be let go in order to get to the bare truth of who we are shook me to the core. This entire trilogy of books (Spiritual Enlightenment — the Damnedest Thing, number 2 is the one mentioned above and the final, Spiritual Warfare) totally turned upside down my ideas of spirituality and our purpose on Earth. As the web site http://www.wisefoolpress.com says, they= books are a joy to read full of charm and humor. But they also have a stark and unyielding challenge to the reader. His books are not for everyone. (paraphrased).
I totally enjoy reading and re-reading the trilogy; and each time re-think my beliefs, feel challenged to take the tortured path to “enlightenment” — and then wonder if it’s even possible or true — or if the harrowing journey to the dissolution of Self is worth the achievement — No-Thing. As I said …. hard to describe adequately.
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I read “The Gulag Archipelago” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn when I was in college. I read all three very thick volumes. I think I was the only person in the class that actually read them. I remember all these years later that I could barely breathe as I read them.
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