Remember that I am trying to write a book.

Also to help plan and prepare a wedding.

And I’ve got a part-time job going on.

Also two children, a husband and a home to keep running…

So I’ve read one book since finishing The Leopard on March 10th. Pathetic. I know. It was 100 Cupboards by ND Wilson and I read it in just about a day late last week. It was lovely and charming and well worth the time and money. I highly recommend it. It is a fantasy children’s book that is uniquely American while still reminiscent of all our favorite British fantasy classics. Baum can eat his heart out.

I think there are two objections to my dismissal of Harry Potter. One, that I’m missing something that is really there or that I ought to be able to enjoy them although I don’t. And two, that my rejection of them entails a rejection of those who do read and enjoy them.

Second objection first.

I think we can all agree that not all writing is equal in aesthetic value or in net benefit to the reader. Any reading is better than none but some reading is just better. Shakespeare is not the same as the Hardy Boys and Jane Austen is not the equal of Harlequin romances. There are many reasons why good writing is good and among those are vocabulary, accomplishment of the set purpose, beauty, truth and what not. There is much debate (and should be much debate) over where the lines are and who gets to set the standards and how a book is measured against them. My favorite test is time. So if we agree that there are some standards somewhere then some books will fall beneath them. I don’t think we should burn them but I do think that they should eventually fall into disuse.

Now, Harry Potter fell beneath the bar for me. I think he ended up being a waste of time and so wouldn’t recommend him to someone who sought my advice on the subject. I have reasons for thinking this but thinking this does not mean that I automatically assume that everyone who disagrees with me is somehow deficient intellectually. I obviously think that I’m right (otherwise I’d be an absurdity) but I am open to being dissuaded and open to agreeing to disagree with someone who doesn’t want to debate the issue with me. I’m opinionated and pretty good at the whole argument thing so I can see someone just thinking it wasn’t worth their time and energy to convince me of my error in judgment about poor Harry even if they were sure of their knowledge.

And apart from that, it is perfectly normal and comprehensible for us to do things that are clearly “bad” for us if we derive sufficient enjoyment from them. I love candy. LOVE candy. Mmmm sugar. Mmmmm high-fructose corn syrup. Ditto bacon, lots and lots of yummy bacon. And while intellectually assenting to the assertion that high-fructose corn syrup is an unredeemable evil, I still eat it. So even if you acknowledge with me that the Harry Potter books are essentially worthless and still opt to read them, I’m still not going to condemn you in my mind or in public as an un-intelligent slob. Your choice, your life, your time, your pleasures. And I really, really like both Jessica and Timmee!!. Jessica is funny and smart and read a freaking 409 books last year. Nothing but respect! Timmee!!, you’re funny too and fun, you make my dear friend very happy and you’ve got just about the world’s best voice, so nothing but love and respect there either.

Now for objection number one.

Drivel may have been a bit harsh…

BUT, I think Rowling is a lazy writer. Her prose is cliche-ridden and bland. I think that while she was imaginitive, creating never-before seen creatures, she still essentially wrote about life in England with magic functioning as an advanced technology. Reading about the Ministry of Magic is just like reading 1984. And that is not a compliment for a supposedly mythological and epic series. The series feels extremely souless to me…although I am glad that it got a single mom off of welfare! My credentials for stating said objections are simply that I’ve read 4 & 1/4 of the books in the series, read pretty all the books Harry has been compared to either favorably or unfavorably and am as opinionated as hell…

Fair enough?

I own The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Order of The Phoenix in hardcover. These books are in great-even gift-shape, perfect really, with nicely Brodarted dustjackets, so if you want them, let me know. If more than one of you wants them I’ll invent some kind of literary duel.

Ummm…not reading that to my kids…

Aesop is over and I’m not sorry. I must confess to my first “skimming” of the year though. I didn’t fully read the “Reflections” following each fable. They were so dull, so often illogical and so long, that I just couldn’t take it after about page 150. Forgive me.

I finished up the last of Naguib Mahfouz’s books Thebes at War and encourage you to get out there and pick up a copy. His Cairo Trilogy was excellent and now his three novels of Ancient Egypt are my list of recommends. They are simply lovely books. I couldn’t put them down…and not just because of some reading goal!

Now I’m trying to get Aesop finished up quickly so I don’t lose it at the dry style and moralizing “Reflections”.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention! This is the day 12 years ago when I first met my little brother. My mom insisted she wasn’t sure if she was really in labor right up until she almost broke my hand squeezing it during contractions. So lucky me got to play “catch” with an incredibly slippery, incredibly precious baby boy. I love you bro!

I am done with Beloved. A huge relief. It is sad, improbable, sad, unappealing and, oh, sad. I’ve read it before and didn’t remember how horribly off-the-rails it goes. I listened to a “Slate” audio book club about it several years ago and was relieved to find that it has not entirely entered the canon despite Oprah’s Seal of Approval.

I’m working on developing a new literary theory. I’ll let you know how that goes.

I am working on staying up later to get more reading in. Now I drink a pot of coffee every morning and half a pot every night. So far it has meant an extra few hundred pages.

I finished Sons and Lovers and I just want to say thank you Pam for not being an obsessive unhappy freak who lives through her sons. It makes my life easier and is giving me a good example for when I’ll have to let go of mine. Sheesh! Literature can be downright disturbing. The novel is about a woman who had an unhappy marriage and so clings to her sons, poisoning their relationships with women and sucking the life out of them at home. Her husband was kind of a jerk but she was a self-righteous shrew. Lawrence is good enough to make you feel sympathetic and pitying to each character in turn but they were not a very admirable lot.

I’ve accepted advice and started Robinson Crusoe. So far he sounds just like Sinbad the Sailor but next to Paul and and the rest of the Morels he’s downright jolly even if he doesn’t understand the concept of risk… Hopefully by tonight we’ll be down to 38.

I wanted to start a short book yesterday and get it finished so I picked up Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. I only read about half because in addition to all the stress mentioned earlier, the boys only took a one-hour nap! (Normal is at least two.) It is an odd but kind of amazing little book and I’m looking forward to finishing it today.

Book club was great though small. It was just MB and I and we easily reached a consensus on preachy children’s books. The Secret Garden wasn’t terrible but we deplore the trend. Our next book is Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Chosen because she and I are both headed to the Hermitage next weekend. We even settled on our next book already. We’ll be reading Aesop’s Fables. I guess we are extra decisive when it’s just two of us. Now it is COFFEE TIME.

In other news the boys and I had an absolutely fabulous day. We played, I worked and hardly a fussy note escaped either of them! It was really quite amazing. I’m not at all certain what the magic formula was but we’re going for a repeat of the experience today.

They came and took the empty POD away. The driveway is much nicer now that there is a little room in it. And, also on the shedding possessions front, we sold our teevee last night. We are now $80 and fourteen cubic feet richer.

My dear friend MB had a fantastic idea and was kind enough to let me in on it. We are looking into spending the weekend at a Hermitage. Such a great plan on so many levels. In another life I might have been a member of a contemplative order so to visit that life for a weekend (and get some reading done) sounds simply wonderful. Now I just have to apply and hope they accept me…