The Good Earth

A friend of mine recently lent me this novel by Pearl S. Buck. At first, I was not interested. I think I even rolled my eyes. This was definitely a school reading list book and I hate those. Normally. Maybe it was because I haven't been in school for a while. Or maybe it was because I recently found myself unemployed and with a lot of time on my hands. Whatever it was, I really enjoyed this read. The story was simple. The words were simple. I was sad when I finished. I wanted to keep reading about the land and the earth. I had developed the same passion for this seemingly simple thing as Wang Lung. I saw the importance and the complexity that his sons, in the end, did not. In a world in which movies don't hold our interest unless at least three things blow up I found simplicity in a book...and I liked it!

An Introduction

I love to read. I love the smell of books, that first crack of the binding on a new book, and the delicate, soft pages of a book frequently opened. I love libraries. If I visit a new city the top thing on my list is always to visit its library. Mostly though, what I love is reading. I can't get enough of it. When I was a kid I read the cereal box, the appliance instruction books, even the church bulletin a hundred times over just to have something to read. It's not that we didn't have books in the house. We had a ton. I'd just read them all. I enjoy most the escape that reading allows. I am part of a different world while in that book. I prefer fiction (it's hard to lose yourself in a George Washington biography) but I encourage reading of any kind. The hardest part, though, is finding something to read. I've tried the top 100 novels lists. That usually just brings back bad high school English class memories. I've done the close-your-eyes-and-pick-randomly-from-the-shelf method. You can only do this so many times at home before you've exhausted all options. I've even done the pick-the-one-with-the-coolest-cover method. Who says you can't judge a book by its cover? But, I've found the best method to be the ask-your-friends/coworkers/acquaintances. Chances are pretty good that you will end up reading something that you never would have picked up otherwise.

So, then, I ask anyone who happens upon this blog, "What shall I read today?"