The Quest

So here I am, beginning a journey to become well-read. I am a librarian and so I should be, but the truth is I became a librarian in a school in order to promote research primarily. Oh sure, I love books, but I admit that I have not loved them as long or as deeply as many of my colleagues. I have long been a fan of research and with the addition of the Internet to the arsenal of research, my goodness, the potential is limitless. But, my use of the cliched term "arsenal of" show one of my motivations to become well-read... Sigh.

I also will explain that I am going to be sharing how the literature hits me. Me as a person, a thinker, a less-well-read than I should be, non-literary type. I am looking for MY truth in the books and will likely miss out on some of the things I should, so if you happen to follow along, I cordially invite you to help me see what I miss. I invite questions. I invite noticing of themes. I invite it all.

What I would say is this- literature, along with all other art forms, does hold universal truth, but it hits individuals differently and I firmly believe it is meant to. My life experience will differ than yours, so we will perhaps be moved by different things. I plan to be honest here. I plan to not shy from the personal experiences, for better or for worse. I am, to use another cliche, an open book, more or less. So I plan to be open here.

What I have noticed, as I have begun reading classics and adult literature is that there is a deliciousness in the realness and honesty of characters in books and yet, in real life, so many guard who they are and when we see something real in others that dances on the line or leaps widely over the boundaries into ugliness we run from that person much of the time. We cannot stand to see.

Recently, an very well-read colleague of mine commented that the characters in a particular book seemed more real to him than many of the people he knew in real life. Interesting. Truthful. But would he really want to know the characters in his real life better and as deeply as those literary ones is what I wonder... No judgement in that at all, just a question and one that I pose to all of us.

So, I am on a quest to read those classics I missed in high school and college. Those books I always have felt I should have read and didn't as I skipped school and faked my way through the American school system, still managing to pass high school with a 3.2 GPA having missed at least a third of it. In college I finally had real motivation and did actually learn, but I spent much of that time in a Bellingham induced fog, so I don't recall that much. I am here to catch up. I will, too, discuss children's books from time to time because I appreciate their beauty deeply. I hope you don't mind.

And last, I promise you that everything I say here is both true and untrue, to the best of my knowledge. Feel free to join in and share your thoughts at any time if you wish.