It's been a while since I've written about what I'm reading. I stopped in the middle of Paper Garden to read The Psychedelic Club by Don Lattin, and then read an early Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, and then went on to Phillip Pullman's Northern Lights (or The Golden Compass, as it's titled in the US). The Lattin and the Didion are both related to my new interest in my old life, that of the 50's & 60's. Paper Garden is related in my interest in being 72, that is, now and onward. Northern Lights is pure escape into other worlds. I read and then forget, so I will include book comments in this writing. I can't recall right now if I've written about The Psychedelic Club, but I think so, so I'll say no more than it comes out of Harvard at the same time as I came out of Radcliffe, and takes a road that mine road paralleled for some time. If I need to say more, I will after I've checked back in my blog work.
What a wonderful title is Slouching Towards Bethlehem! This collection of essays writes about times and places that I lived in, and is an almost embarrassing look at myself living on the side of of the psychedelic era, which includes Viet Nam, Roe v Wade, Martin Luther King, John Kennedy, free love, and of course psychedelics. I say living on the side, because I see much of my past living on the side of wherever and whenever I was. Awakening from this half-dream life is my work now.
Philip Pullman was mentioned to me by Roxane, whom I also have to thank for (and return to!) The Psychedelic Club. I don't remember the conversation about Pullman, although I recall it was in the motel room in Alameda; the name stuck in my mind and I bought a Kindle version of this first of a trilogy called His Dark Materials. It's listed as young adult fiction, and falls into a category that now includes Harry Potter, written for a young adult reader and read by adults. I've got the other two on hold at the library.
I love reading on my Kindle, but prefer to get books from the library when I can. Sometimes I forget to go there first. I read somewhere today (maybe on Brain Pickings Weekly) that there are more libraries in the US than McDonald's. Hooray for us!
Back to Paper Garden.
The line you read about more libraries in the US than McDonalds is from MarashGirl.blogpot.com, a quote from Chris Bohjalian who was speaking on his new novel, THE SANDCASTLE GIRLS, already #7 on the New York Times bestseller's list. That's a book you should add to your list of must reads!
ReplyDeleteOf course it was! I mean the quotation was from Bohjalian, via you. I inhale what I read way too fast; I should be able to recall where I read something only a few hours before! At least I remembered something. I'll definitely add Sandcastle Girls to my list; and other books of his as well. I hope I can find some in the libraries I am a member of.
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