Our Mutual Reading Is it that I am reading to forget, or am I reading to connect? I’m not sure of the answer to that question at the moment. My father is hospitalized, not for the first time. He is scheduled for two surgeries two days in a row, and at eighty-six there is reason to be concerned. I worry not only for him but for my mother. The emotional and physical toll it is taking is noticeable, and I am speaking about her as well as about myself. I am not reading as much as I would like. I have previously mentioned that I am the daughter of two lifelong and passionate readers. At least they were until several years ago when my father’s eyesight made it hard enough to make it unpleasant. He gave up even large-print and audio books. My mother can still read, but doesn’t do it much any more. But their love of books is still visible in the shelves packed with them. I was thinking about those shelves today as I sat with them in the hospital room and listened to Dad answer questions from the dietician. What’s on his bookshelves are very different from what’s on mine, yet the connection between them is much less than might be surmised by the titles alone. When he was reading he favored legal novels or biographies of legal figures, and I think he has every one of John Grisham’s books up to about three years ago. He also enjoyed military thrillers and books about the sea or history. Stephen Ambrose was a favorite. He absolutely loved Two Years Before the Mast, a book he read a half-dozen times before he passed it on to me. It sits on my most prominent shelf, a reminder of that love he passed on to me. So why, I wonder, has my reading dropped off. I have a short book, Journey on the Estrada Real: Encounters in the Mountains of Brazil, that I have been reading but that is not finished. On Tuesday night I picked up and finished I Was Hitler’s Chauffeur in one night, but I am still digesting the flavorless taste of the memoir, an odd sensation considering its subject matter. And I am about fifty pages into yet another book about the history of traveling salesmen in America. I am reading, but I am reading with less satisfaction. My question—am I reading to forget or connect?—was something I pondered on the long drive home this afternoon. Would I be better off, assuming I am looking to memorialize our love, to read Two Years Before the Mast? It’s not a book I’ve read yet, and I wonder if there would be something special for him and for me when I see him next weekend. We could talk about it, and surely it would be a welcome change from the tests and chatter that so often characterizes hospital visits. While I can’t bring in a steak and baked potato, I can bring in rich literary food for our mutual indulgence. And I think that’s just what I might do. I’ll set aside the books I am reading now, and go find that novel. And tomorrow, when I open it up to begin, I plan to make a stop at the front flyleaf page where I remember writing a special dedication to him when I gifted him with the book for his birthday many years ago. I want to read it to connect with him over our mutual passion, and I never want to forget that. Upcoming Book Festivals: Then on Saturday, March 20, Fort Myers, Florida, is the site of the Southwest Florida Reading Festival from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Harborside Event Center & Centennial Park. Lisa Scottoline is the keynote speaker, and there are nearly two dozen others who write for adults, young adult, and children. Activities include festival marketplace exhibits, book sales and signings, a festival store, the bookmobile, children’s activities and crafts, teen contests, aspiring authors writing contest, and more. It’s all free so show up and make a day of it. Also on Saturday, March 20, the city of Birmingham will play host to Alabama Bound, where this year’s theme, “Celebrating the Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” sets the stage for special events including an appearance by “Mark Twain,” period music, Southern cooking, storytelling, and a book discussion with a panel of experts from different perspectives. The festival runs from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. The Pub House: Among their current offerings is Notes from No Man’s Land: American Essays, which won the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award. But their lesser known books are equally outstanding, including Central Square, a novel about conflicts between personal desires and social constraints, or The Accordionist’s Son, the story of a man living in exile on a California ranch who decides to write about his growing-up years in the fictional village of Obaba when he discovered a letter implicating his father in fascist activities during the Spanish Civil War and the resultant family and village tensions that still simmer. Imaging Books & Reading: Of Interest: This Week . . . Until next week, read well, read often and read on!
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