A few years ago I returned from vacationing in Maine and mentioned that I’d started reading “The Grapes of Wrath.” A friend of mine raised her eyebrows. “That’s not exactly beach reading, is it?” No, I guess “The Grapes of Wrath” is not what people generally think of as beach reading, but since I’ve never really understood the concept of beach reading, it seemed like a perfectly fine thing to bring on vacation with me. “The Grapes of Wrath” is a long book, and I have a lot more time for reading when I’m vacation. Why waste that time reading the latest James Patterson novel?
The number of great books I’ve never read could fill a small library, and I like to read one or two of them a year. Last year I tackled “Moby-Dick,” lugging the doorstop-sized book with me when I went to Seattle in August to visit friends (“Are you actually going to read that?” they asked), and next week I plan to take on “War and Peace.” I pulled “War and Peace” out of the bookcase last night and placed it on my coffee table. I really liked “Anna Karenina” when I read it four or five years ago, and I’m sure “War and Peace” will be great, too, because that Leo Tolstoy certainly knew how to turn a phrase.
What scares me about “War and Peace” is the time commitment. After staring at the heavy tome for a bit, I plucked “Letters to a Young Contrarian” by Christopher Hitchens off the shelf. Hitchens kind of gets on my nerves, but I’ve never read this book, and it seems like I should read the books I own, except maybe “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. Plus, it’s only 140 pages long, which makes it the perfect thing to read before plunging into a novel that’s over 1,400 pages long.
I haven’t been a very ambitious reader this year, and I think it’s because it took me so long to recover from “Moby-Dick,” which I spent about five months reading. Don’t get me wrong — I loved “Moby-Dick.” I didn’t expect to, as I’d only heard negative things about “Moby-Dick” from friends who had read it and remained somewhat shell shocked from the whole experience. Once I start reading a book, I’ll finish it even if I hate it, which is why I was scared to start reading “Moby-Dick.” But it’s regarded as one of the greatest books ever, and I figured there had to be a reason why. The fact is, “Moby-Dick” has everything you’d ever want in a novel. The writing is amazing. It’s an adventure story, an allegory and a history lesson. It’s as close to a perfect novel as I’ve ever read.
Still, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a relief to finish “Moby-Dick.” I felt liberated, free, finally, to read other things, and I’ve spent the past half year or so flying through shorter, less challenging books. Oh, some of these books (“All the King’s Men” comes to mind) have been very good. But it’s time for another big project, which is why I got “War and Peace” out. I can’t think of a better time to start reading this than August, when things are slow and lazy.
On Manny: So it looks like the Sox may trade Manny. At first, I didn’t really pay any attention to the Manny nonsense, because it seemed pretty typical, and as much as I like the Boston Globe sports columnists, I’ve tired of the way they chastise Manny for acting the way he acts. I mean, it’s not like I approve of Manny’s mercurial nature and endless self-absorption, but he has been a joy to watch during his Boston years, and a key cog of two World Series teams, and I’ll put up with a lot when someone’s capable of hitting more than 500 home runs. Frankly, reading the Globe columnists felt a bit like listening to my dad lecture me about my attitude or something. But the Globe has two younger sports bloggers, Chad Finn and Eric Wilbur, who are generally far more patient with the whole Manny being Manny thing, and both of them seem to think Manny’s antics have gone too far. I tend to think there’s a generation gap when it comes to Manny, and if these guys are turning on Manny, perhaps he and the Sox really are headed for an ugly divorce. Like most divorces, it’s sad.
