12 March 2011

My fall (and possible return) from grace

Making excuses for being late has always bugged me. Sure there are times when being late to an appointment or turning in an assignment late has a reason, but for the most part, lateness to me is lack of planning, a lack of caring, and a lack of respect to oneself and whomever expects a prompt arrival or return or report.

So currently I hate myself.

I have tried and failed to read one classic book a month and cannot keep up. I deprived myself of reading other things because I know I must read this month's selection and yet it still is not read. Now I'm two months behind.

I am a horrible book club leader and I know it.

Not only do I suck at my reviews, I can't get my shit together to simply get the reading done. I'm sorry.

A couple of months ago I wondered if my lack of concentration to the printed page was, um, poor eyesight. As in old eyesight. As in I needed reading glasses.

Yep. And so I ordered a nice pair and now I never use them because I am used to taking off my glasses (I am near-sighted) when I read. Eventually not using reading glasses won't be an option, I suppose.

Earlier this week when I had yet another coma inducing event with Cranford (I can't read a page of this classic without day dreaming about something anything other than the story), I was reminded of the website Project Gutenberg. And since I read so much so very very much off the computer screen, I wondered if this site had Cranford and what would it be like to read off the computer screen.

Aside: Not too long ago, some of us claimed that reading books on the computer would "give us headaches" and that would never ever happen. We claimed that sure blogs and snippets could be read, but never ever a work, like a fiction novel or a scientific paper. Never would we read from a computer screen.

We were Fools. That includes me.

Obviously I love to read stuff on the computer screen. In fact I can and sometimes do spend entire days reading from my computer. So why was I so surprised three chapters of Cranford were swallowed like sugar water (and now I am deep into the story - Yay)... Why?

This is coupled with the quality of books I'm reading as well. Which needs to be explained. I order books from my library. Classics are usually worn. One exception was Voltaire, but most others are in horrible shape. My library copy of Cranford is a paperback made into a hardcover with yucky yellow stains and filled with underlining in Bic ballpoint blue ink pen.

If you have ever done this to a book whether it be a your own or a library book, don't tell me. I might have to kill you. With a bic ballpoint pen. In blue.

2 comments:

  1. Underlining and highlighting are evil, but you definitely aren't. If you fail to feed your cat and it dies, you can hate yourself. If you fail to read a book, you should just eat a piece of chocolate and have a cup of tea.

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  2. I apologize in advance for the long comment. Can't shut me up tonight. Also, love the advice above!

    ***

    I don't think your reviews suck.

    After a bumpy start, I breezed through "Cranford." And I have been meaning to write about it FOREVER. Yet, I have failed. (Not having my laptop has been a factor, though, but you would think whenever I could get my hands on BF's laptop, I would type it up - but I haven't. Doh.)

    I still don't think I could read an entire book on a computer screen, but I could probably do a Kindle or a Nook. I just like being able to snuggle up with my reading material, you know?

    Although, like you, I have spent entire days reading a computer screen, so I admit my feelings are not rational.

    Heehee. I don't think I ever marked up a novel with a ballpoint. But I am in love with dog-earing pages that hold quotes or summations of things that I love about the novel. I get irritated when I loan my dog-eared book, and later discover that the borrower has un-dog-eared my pages.

    Just because books are "classics," it doesn't mean we have to love them. You probably know that...I just don't think any person should feel bad for disliking a classic. There's plenty of white male 20th century authors who I think are privileged shite, for example.

    Confessionally - I can't get past the first chapter of "David Copperfield" (my "Oliver Twist" sub). I will eventually persevere, though, because I have a long history with Dickens (seriously, I've read all of them except for the two obvious ones - DC, and "The Tale Of Two Cities.") Also, I only read the first few chapters of "The Secret Agent" before putting it aside. I hope to get back to it, though it was starting out in a boring manner. In the meantime, I picked up "Delusions of Gender," by Cordelia Fine. :D

    Although, now I am suddenly in the mood to think about "Cranford," so maybe I can get back on the CBC horse shortly.

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Thanks for sharing!