books!

During our running around today we went to the bookstore. I picked up Wilhelm Reich's "The Function of Orgasm". When I showed derien the conversation went something like this:

d: You're going to get that?
e: Yes.
d: Why?
e: He's a nut!
d: Exactly. Why would you waste a part of your life like that?
e: There are plenty of ways to waste part of your life.
d: Like looking for a book that probably already sold.
(derien was looking for a book she passed up about six months ago. She spent considerable time looking even though she couldn't even remember the title or author. A fruitless search.)

You really can't judge if someone is truly a nut until you've actually read the work. I didn't start badmouthing Stephen King until I'd read some of his books and discovered he couldn't write an ending to save his soul. Speaking of whom, when we were walking down the street today, a random passerby asked me if I was Stephen King. Uh, no, but from that comment I guess he's using old photos on his back covers, he's a bit older than I am.

Oh, I also got "HIgher Mathematics" by Burlington and Torrance. It's a nicely bound calculus book from 1939. I still mourn the fact that I got rid of my old calc book, but it was a much larger tome.

reading (Life of Pi)

I finished "Life of Pi" this morning. I read most of it in two days after getting bogged down around page 50 for the best part of a week.

The author seemed intent on exterminating all traces of suspense from his novel. On major and minor points you're told enough up front so you don't have to wonder how it's going to turn out. None of Schrodinger's felines were harmed in the writing of this novel. I found it majorly irritating.

I enjoyed the story once we got onto the actually story and stopped lolling about in India. Don't get me wrong, I would love to loll about in India, I just didn't enjoy the way author forced me to do it. It was like reading a young adult novel or watching an after school special. There was more happening once we were stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of pacific with nothing to look at.

The book is billed as a religious novel, but symbolism is slippery stuff when applied with a trowel. You could easily say that India is the zebra, America the hyena, Britain the orangutan, and China the tiger in political/social symbolism.

24. Yann Martel "Life of Pi"