Musings...

You know the scene in "When Harry Met Sally" when Harry explains to Sally that she is "a high maintenance person who thinks she is low maintenance"? When it comes to reading, I claim to be a reader of everything, when really, I prefer fiction. It's not that I'm not interested in non-fiction subjects - I am. In fact, I love learning about new things and considering new ideas. It's just that I can't seem to finish books that aren't stories - which generally applies to works of fiction, memoirs, and maybe even the occasional biography.

Take "The World Is Flat" by the brilliant Thomas Friedman. B. loaned it to me after he and my mom talked about it with great animation one night at dinner. It sounded fascinating. I didn't make it through the first chapter. And so it joins the countless other unfinished books that sit on my nightstand for awhile and then make their way back to their owners, the library, or - even worse - the bottom of the bookshelf, where they serve as reminders of ideas unexplored.

Since I am stubborn and determined by nature, I will pick up these abandoned tomes again. And this time, I will...read a chapter or two and then put them right back where they were. Ah, well.

What I look for in a book is a good story - and good stories involve people's lives. They appeal to my vivid imagination and love of language. It's not that I don't want to explore new ideas...it's just that I find the most compelling ways to explore them is through story-telling.

Of course, my husband recently recommend Master of the Senate, an historical work about President Johnson that he insists is one of the most beautifully written books he has come across (he's read it three times!). So I'll probably read that...for a chapter or two.