Bookish Thots

Over the weekend I watched Harold Bloom on CSPAN's Book TV. He teaches at Yale and is known somewhat as an iconoclast. He is a liberal in the true sense of the word and seems to have taken on the role of letting us know what is wrong with our society. One of those wrongs is that hardly anyone reads anymore. Or we read, but not the best stuff. He espouses the Bible, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dante, etc. But he's not completely a snob...he loves Austen, Melville, and even the contemporary author Cormec McCarthy. I think one of you girls asked me about McCarthy. I'm not familiar with him, but after hearing Bloom, I am going to give him a try. Anyway, he made me feel good about thinking deep thots and reading words. He reminds me of a Dickens character...and got so emotional about the great authors that he literally became weepy and emotional. His featured book is called How to Read and Why. I am going to take a look at it and if it's not too stuffy, I will give it a try.

I had lunch with my "other" book group friends on Friday. We don't really read much. They mostly want to talk and eat. It's difficult to choose a book because they have limits on what they will try...not too thick, especially. This month's book is Mrs. Mike, which is a good read if you haven't experienced it yet. It tells the true story of a young girl who marries a Canadian Mountie and has to go live in the boonies with him. It's full of her trials and adjustments, not only to married life but to the harsh frontier of upper Canada.

Anyway, at lunch we got talking about Catch Me If You Can. The brother of one of the ladies joined the FBI a couple of years ago. At the end of his Quantico training the group of cadets got to hear the con artist speak to them in person. He shared his secrets with them, so that they would be more aware of when they are being duped. Apparently, it was a high point in the FBI training for this guy. Just thought you'd find that cool, Abby.

I'm enjoying Mockingbird and should be done the end of this week. Will post more then.

Beccy, I finished You Can Never Get Enough Of What You Don't Need and loved it! I'm going to sneak a few thoughts from it into my RS lesson on gratitude this coming Sunday. I started the peculiar people one yesterday. So far so good. I heard her speak a couple of weeks ago on BYU-TV and now when I read her I hear her voice. She's very funny but spot on.

I will be posting our July read later this week...probably when I post re my book. Happy reading!