Reading

Not having cable has proven to be a means to productivity for me. In the last 2 months I've started a very successful and critically acclaimed blog, cooked more meals than in the previous 25 years combined, re-taken up knitting, began re-learning Spanish and read four great books. Having finished four books is the greatest of all the above accomplishments in my mind considering that the last book I read, The Fountainhead, took nearly 3 years to finish. Granted, it was a rather long and heady novel, but 3 years is embarrassing. I really liked The Fountainhead; despite taking a few years to get through it. I felt very accomplished after finishing the book. I persevered through it and not only finished it but learned about a new philosophy. I wanted to understand the book better so I followed by reading some commentaries on the author, her philosophies and the theme behind her novel.


The past two months, however, have been a hale storm of literary activity for me compared to the last few years. I've read Jane Eyre by Emily Bronte, Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolfe, The Hours by Michael Cunningham and The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. I won't be writing a book report or review of each. I'll just explain how I came to read the last 3.
My sophomore year of college the film The Hours was shown on campus. I went to see it with my roommate and dear friend Miss Sarah Thompson. The story was about Virgina Wolfe writing her novel, Mrs. Dalloway in turn of the century London, Laura Brown who is reading Mrs. Dalloway in 1950's California and Clarissa Vaughn who IS the modern day Mrs. Dalloway; three connected stories in one happening across time and space, very interesting. I found this film captivating and the symphonic soundtrack by Phillip Glass was haunting and moving.
I recently spent an evening with a friend from my church, Kristin Hall, who is a school teacher with a very large personal library. I saw that she had The Hours AND Mrs. Dalloway.


I was very excited to talk to her about the film and the novel which the film is based on, Virginia Wolfe's Mrs. Dalloway. I gladly accepted her offer to borrow both books.
She also had several books by C.S Lewis who is a favorite author of mine. I ended up borrowing The Great Divorce since I had not read it yet. I also wanted to read this book because a certain song lyric had been, and is still, stuck in my head "And the weight of glory, if you held it in your hands, it would pass right through you, so nows your chance, would you fall to pieces in the high countries" and another line "out in the green plains, I am but a ghost" I had heard that the song, "The High Countries" by Caedmon's Call was about C.S Lewis' book The Great Divorce. The more I read the book the more and more I thought of this song and how it really is like an outline of the book.

All the books were excellent and I highly recommend them. Thanks for letting me borrow them Kristin! I'll be returning them soon!