Monday, February 8, 2010

A Good Day

While visiting friends in Idaho a few months ago, I was asked by Laura about my favorite book. And I did not have an answer.

I have enjoyed a great many books over the years, but do not have a favorite. Not because none failed to impress me or they did not imprint something in my brain, but because I have never had that moment of being blown away by literature.

And that made me a little sad.

There are many passages and quotations that I love and adore, but then the story in its entirety was a let-down. This has been the case with fiction, which I have learned, I do not really enjoy.

Maybe that's the problem; I almost exclusively read non-fiction and because of that, there are no real surprises. Or my over-critical, unimaginative mind doesn't allow for the necessary "escape" and I do not process surprises, revelations and the like.

Boo me.

While at a bookstore over the weekend, I came across Harold Zinn's "A People's History of the United States", a book that I fondly recalled upon learning of Mr. Zinn's death last month. I was fortunate enough to have a teacher in high school that utilized this publication along side the regular text book; I believe this helped cultivate the US history nerd that is before you.

It also introduced me to the great mind that was Harold Zinn. I heard him lecture on democracy at Vasser College in 2000 and snuck into several more lectures at Boston College that same year. Emma is not performed often enough, but that's just me.

I purchased "A People's History" and started reading it last night. It all came back. The outrage and sadness about how this country came to be, the thankfulness for being born here and the gratitude for Mr. Zinn's words.

A favorite book? Maybe. What's yours?

5 comments:

  1. Beautiful Blog! Enjoyed my visit.

    Julie
    www.equusvilla.blogspot.com
    www.ridingaside.blogspot.com

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  2. Hi, I think your blog is outstanding. I'm going to have to buy some of these books. I'm too busy reading blogs. Is that horrible? Keri (a.k.a. Sam)

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  3. My favorite book is Moving On by Larry McMurtry. It is a tale of a woman finding herself as she grows up beyond her 20s and into her 30s. It's about how she wrestles with the moral and ethical questions that face each one of us as we move through this complex world.

    I also love The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. I read it before the movie came out and was blown away by this genre called Historical Fiction. To think that these events may truly have happened, even though they were imagined by this gifted author... what a wonderful idea to savor as the events unfolded on the pages!

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  4. Glad that you're kinda blown away with Harold Zinn's "A People's History of the United States". Bice book.

    Shangri

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  5. love reading books...one of my hobbies...really love the colection of twilight

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