30 Mar

letters into stories.

Tonight, I finished a rather large novel that has taken me months to read; creeping through a piddling number of pages a week. I’m reveling in that triumphant feeling you get when you finish a book, and felt compelled to write about it.

You know what I’m talking about… you’re getting closer to the end, you can feel the thickness of pages in your right hand getting skimpy. Sometimes you sneak ahead and count how many you’ve got to go, all the while reading faster and faster, unable to stop. You finally make it to that last word and the final period.

Silence.

You sit and turn the plot over and over in your mind, pondering the characters, ruminating on what impact the ending has brought to the entire rest of the story. Then you smile. Read the author’s notes, thank you’s, etc. Close the cover, and give the outside art an appreciative look. You smile again, and then start figuring out what new book on the shelf you want to pull out next.

The end.

3 Comments

  1. 1
    Betsy
    03.31.07 at 8:16pm
    Permalink

    Recommended reading?

  2. 2 04.01.07 at 10:43am
    Permalink

    nowadays thats how i feel when i am finished reading all the links of a wiki page for a certain subject. i like being able to change directions on the fly.

  3. 3 04.01.07 at 10:50am
    Permalink

    Next up is In Cold Blood by Capote, which everyone knows; I want to see the movie. And Cradle to Cradle, which Jesska kindly gave me.

    Here’s Amazon’s review of Cradle:

    Paper or plastic? Neither, say William McDonough and Michael Braungart. Why settle for the least harmful alternative when we could have something that is better–say, edible grocery bags! In Cradle to Cradle, the authors present a manifesto calling for a new industrial revolution, one that would render both traditional manufacturing and traditional environmentalism obsolete. Recycling, for instance, is actually “downcycling,” creating hybrids of biological and technical “nutrients” which are then unrecoverable and unusable. The authors, an architect and a chemist, want to eliminate the concept of waste altogether, while preserving commerce and allowing for human nature. They offer several compelling examples of corporations that are not just doing less harm–they’re actually doing some good for the environment and their neighborhoods, and making more money in the process. Cradle to Cradle is a refreshing change from the intractable environmental conflicts that dominate headlines. It’s a handbook for 21st-century innovation and should be required reading for business hotshots and environmental activists. ~Therese Littleton

    In Cold Blood Cradle to Cradle

Add Comment

Your email is never published nor shared.