2/11/2022 blog

On a book review and an original poem

From The Irish Times review  of a new book called No One Around Here Reads Tolstoy:

“Still, there remains reading: Hodkinson considers himself ‘one third of well-read’; a victim of BABLE (‘Books Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy’), piles of them tower throughout his home. A therapist described his relationship to books as ‘a fantastic expression of hope.’ We need people capable of that more than ever.”

Some thoughts

  • Modern society makes it more difficult to focus on long literary works because there are so many electronic distractions.
  • I am guilty of BABLE and have bought many more books than ever likely to read.
  • I dated a woman who questioned why people buy books when they can borrow them from the library. I disagreed with her but could not really explain myself well. I said people are irrational about books, that they offer some hope of self-improvement. We only went on one real date, maybe two. Certainly not three.

“7-Eleven” by yours truly

7-Eleven to 9/11.

“Hey, shouldn’t the seven and nine be spelled out?”

Convenience stores. They hate us for our…

Perhaps they hate us for our s’mores,

And we should instead eat hors d’oeuvres.