Did I ever tell you?

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, A Monk Swimming. I'd read his brother's books, Angela's Ashes, and the sequel thereto. Angela's Ashes was one of my all-time favorites, because except for him not having had siblings to die, in many ways, it told the story of my father's life, or at least of the nature of the milieu in which he grew up. I actually didn't expect to like A Monk Swimming as much as I did, though.

That has been the case over the years with other books...

Interestingly, I had refused to read anything by Vonnegut since at least 1988, because my boyfriend at the time LOVED Vonnegut, especially Creator, and because I thought he (the boyfriend) was a pompous ass. Don't even ask why I would simultaneously date a person and think that person a pompous ass!! Later, in addition to that, I grew to be even more contemptuous of Vonnegut because he went to the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, and therefore, lived in Iowa City. I don't like Iowa City, liked very few things about the University of Iowa (which, given my predilection for institutes of higher education, is rather shocking in and of itself), and despised the people I knew who were enrolled at the Writers' Workshop at the time. But, after Mikael's leaving Mother Night here, and having nothing else to read at the time, I finally broke down and read it, and loved it.

For that matter, I had One Hundred Years of Solitude, which is still my all time favorite book, with Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, and Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera, tying together for a close second, on my shelf for years and years. I knew it was assigned in many liberal arts college/university survey courses, be they of world literature, or whatever. And the book seemed dense. I tried to read it a number of times before I could. And then, again, not only could I not put it down, but I never grow tired of it.

People always ask that (perhaps silly) question, who would you want to be trapped in an elevator with, or what living/dead person would you want to have lunch with.... I usually can't think of anybody. My friend, Vicky, always says Bono. Bono's cool, too. But, I think that I would want that person to be Gabriel Garcia Marquez. That said, he'd have to start the discourse, I believe, between my shyness, having so many things running around my head in a panic to get out, and his greatness, I don't know that I would come up with anything to say. No matter, you get the point. My mother wanted her person to be Pope John Paul II.

Did I ever tell you the story about my mother's acid trip with Jefferson Airplane?

And no, that is not a joke, nor a function of the acid in question, my mother's one and only acid trip was thanks to the "dosing," as Mikael says its called, of my mother's joint, by someone in Jefferson Airplane. That said, it might be a good first line to one of the books I've been working on.

That's another thing. I like collecting pieces of poetry, song lyrics, first lines of novels, other lines of novels, etc. I guess I like collecting other people's thoughts and words - mostly because they engender so much thought and writing. Much of my blog includes that collection and my thoughts thereon.

Songs are interesting critters. When I was dating *****, especially whenever I was with him, even talking or watching a movie, there was a never-ending soundtrack running through my head. It was weird. In a good way. I'd never experienced such a thing before, or since.

At work, sometimes, I jokingly say that we should write our options to the reading and listening comprehension questions based upon song lyrics. It would probably keep the students' attention...

For example,
According to paragraph 17, which of the following best reflects the implication of the writer's assessment of the recent elections in Gondwanaland?

A. All we are saying, is give peace a chance.
B. It don't make sense, you can't make peace.
C. I'm sick of hearing, again and again, that there's gonna be peace on Earth.
D. Above the spearpoints, peace stands higher than my fragile sense of need.

Well, C wouldn't be a plausible option, and would therefore be either too frequently selected or too easily eliminated, because of the proper noun. So I need to review that one...

Talk about random musings!

I don't know if I believe in God anymore. And, if I do, I think that God equals Science, period. If I don't, I am not sure what the implications would be, except a certain sadness and a feeling of loss for what I used to believe in. Really, now, I just don't know.