I regret to report that I am still not through UNDER THE DOME. However, I’m getting closer. In the meantime, I had an interesting conversation that got me thinking about how I’ve changed as a reader, and seem to be slowing down as I get older.
it’s always refreshing to pick up a book by a writer you’ve never read, but who often seems to be mentioned in glowingly positive terms, and find yourself enjoying the story they’ve put together. More than that, to find the book not quite like anything else you’ve read before, here in an age where libraries can be downloaded in an afternoon, could be construed as a minor (and very entertaining) miracle.
J.D. Salinger passed away a few days ago. He’s most famous for Catcher in the Rye of course, although he wrote several other stories as well, but I have the sneaking suspicion that, if he were here, old J.D. Would prefer I not talk about him, so let’s focus on something else instead:
My apologies for the silence since the New Year. I haven’t gotten any columns out this month, and I feel bad about that.
One of the reasons why I’ve tried to champion reading fiction over the past year is that, when it’s well-written, fiction can be incredibly powerful. Powerful enough to change the way we look at the world around us, for better or worse. Let me give an example that shows I mean this quite literally:
