2011 reading challenge: a banned book.

My 2011 reading challenge pick in the “Banned Book” category is John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, which according to the American Library Association is consistently ranked among the top ten most frequently challenged books for a variety of reasons including violence, cruelty to animals and the lack of strong female characters. But my guess is that what really ends up getting the book banned is the way it ends -- because it clearly makes the case that mercy killing can be the form that compassion takes.


Compassion is one of several themes that run through this depression era short novel, originally titled Something That Happened and later changed to Of Mice and Men – a line taken from a poem by Robert Burns: “the best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley.” It’s the story of two migrant workers whose dream of someday owning their own little farm where they can settle down to “live off the fatta the lan’ is impossible to attain. But the novel is really all about the bond between a child-like, developmentally disabled man and his loyal friend who has taken on the responsibility of looking out for him.


Classic pieces of literature are those that tell us something timeless and true about life and human nature in a way that engages our understanding and empathy. Steinbeck has done that here. Of Mice and Men deals with classic themes: courage vs. cowardice, strength vs. weakness, innocence vs. experience, loneliness and the longing to belong, alienation and isolation, duty, the burden of being responsible for others, the task of mercy, and the weight of compassion.

John Steinbeck, who is said to have preferred writing with pencils, and often used as many as 60 each day, is one of America’s finest writers. He didn’t graduate from college, and most likely he never enrolled in a writers workshop or signed up for a course in creative writing. He did try his hand at free-lance writing in the 20’s but failed at it and eventually turned his attention to novels. His first success was in 1935 with Tortilla Flat filled with rough and earthy humor. Of Mice and Men was published in 1937 and The Grapes of Wrath, widely considered to be his best work, appeared in 1940.

Steinbeck’s sympathies for migrant workers and the struggles of working-class people didn’t set well with everyone. In 1942, an unidentified informant complained to J. Edgar Hoover: "For some time past I have resented books by Steinbeck, for they portray such unrepresentative pictures of our American life in rural districts. I live near the Everglades farms district and most of the migrants out there live better than I do, while they are here for the picking season."

In 1962 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature “for his realistic as well as imaginative writings, distinguished by a sympathetic humor and a keen social perception.” In 1979, John Steinbeck’s portrait was featured on a commemorative stamp.

And in 1996 John Steinbeck’s widow created the Steinbeck award given to artists whose work reflects her husband’s democratic ideals and concern for the common man. Past recipients include Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Arthur Miller and Sean Penn.

The National Steinbeck Center, located in his hometown of Salinas, California, provides opportunities for visitors to learn about literature and history, agriculture and art, as well special events and educational programs.

The Good Earth

One of the books I selected as a part of my 2011 reading challenge needed to be Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction. (So many titles to choose from!) I finally picked The Good Earth by Pearl Buck and discovered that not only did this book win the Pulitzer Prize in 1932, but in 1938 she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for “her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces". It’s interesting to note that she refused to accept the prize in person because it was being presented in Nazi Germany.

The Good Earth was published in 1931 and eventually translated into more than 30 languages. Much of its appeal has to do with Buck’s talent for describing ordinary details and customs of pre-revolutionary Chinese peasant life which she was able to do because she grew up in China and was acquainted with its history and culture. She was also familiar with Chinese literature and oral story telling traditions, which is reflected in the narrative style she uses in her novel. As a result I feel there was an authenticity to the way the story unfolds in simple words and phrases, as well as the sparse dialogue between characters whose way of speaking and interacting with each other is dictated by strict social norms and conventions.

I enjoyed this book very much and it left me fascinated with Pearl Buck herself. A little bit of research on-line revealed that evidently she wrote The Good Earth in less than three months and went on to become quite well known because of the awards it received. Nevertheless, despite her Nobel prize for literature, the “literary establishment” (heavy weight writers like William Faulkner included) thumbed its collective nose at her even going so far as to criticize the Swedish Academy for awarding her such a prestigious prize.

Today her books are considered dated when compared to novels about China that are being written by contemporary Chinese writers. But in the thirties she was one of the few, perhaps the only, person writing about China. And the fact that that's where she grew up, learning to speak Chinese even before she could speak English, certainly qualified her to write about what she learned there.

Throughout her life, she and her second husband Richard Walsh, (who was also her publisher) were involved in a number of humanitarian efforts through the East/West Association an organization devoted to mutual understanding between the United States and Asian Countries. Pearl Buck also founded Welcome House, known today as Opportunity House, the first international, inter-racial adoption agency in the United States, as well as establishing The Pearl Buck Foundation. “This then is our responsibility,” she said in one of her speeches, “to share what we have, so that the benefits of human wisdom with its infinite deities, may be enjoyed by all.

Eleanor Roosevelt was one of Pearl Buck’s role models as was Margaret Mead; and Pearl was an avid advocate of women’s rights and racial equality. It was probably for these reasons, as well as her interest in Asian cultures that the F.B.I. kept detailed files on her for years. She had been classified as a Communist sympathizer but at the same the Chinese government accused her of being a “running dog of capitalism,” and her books were banned there until as recently as 1997.

The Good Earth was made into a film in 1937 and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two of them (Best Actress and Best Cinematography). Ironically, the Actress who won the award for her portrayal of O-Lan had not been the first choice for the role. In addition to employing Chinese as extras and giving the role of Wang-Lung’s sons to Chinese actors, the role of O-Lan had originally been intended for Chinese actress Anna May Wong. However, the Hays Code miscegenation rules banned the portrayal of mixed race marriages on screen, and so she was rejected because the actor who took the part of Wang-Lung was white.

My Life in Books 2010

"Early Autumn"

Deborah DeWitt Marchant

Having fun with the titles of some of the books I've read in 2010...

I used to belong to The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (Michael Chabon)

People might be surprised to discover that I’m Alias Grace (Margaret Atwood)

I will never be The Last Wife of Henry VIII (Carolly Erickson)

At the end of a long day I need The Echoing Grove (Rosamond Lehmann)

Someday I hope I'll have The Perfect Summer (Juliet Nicolson)

At a party you’d find me in The Music Room (William Fiennes)

I’ve never gone Out Stealing Horses (Per Petterson)

I really don’t enjoy Strong Poison (Dorothy Sayers)

I would like to visit Wolf Hall (Hillary Mantel)

In my next life I want to live at The Barn at the End of the World (Mary Rose O’Reilley)

My advice is to make Final Payments (Mary Gordon)

I hope I never run into the demon in the house (Angela Thirkel)

A Year in Books 2010

Woman Reading in a Study

Mary Ferris Kelly

Feeding my obsession for keeping track of things like this, here’s a review of books I read in 2010

Books read (and completed): 29

Books started and abandoned: 5

Fiction: 20

Non-Fiction: 8

Library books: 14

Set in British Isles: 9

Set in Ireland: 3

Favorites:

Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (David Mitchell)

The setting and time period were both new to me -- a remote island trading post for the Dutch East India Company off the coast of Nagasaki in the 18^th. The plot was a heady mix of political intrigue, murder, passion, unrequited love, loyalty, betrayal, brutality and tenderness, and the characters were fascinating - a colorful mix of all sorts of low lifes, scoundrels, thieves and toadying bureaucrats into whose midst came a few brave souls determined to do the right thing even though it placed them at great risk. I was fascinated with all the details about Japanese court etiquette and protocol, and the clash of East/West cultural values and norms.

Alias Grace (Margaret Atwood)

Atwood is a talented writer with a knack for telling a compelling story. And at the same time she expects the reader to do a fair share of the work as well. In this case we’re introduced early on to the fact that a terrible crime has been committed, but we’re not so sure that the woman who has been convicted of it really is guilty. Or (and here things get even more interesting) if she is guilty, was she really aware of what she was doing? Even more interesting is that she is based on a real person who was tried for the murder of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery in 1843, sentenced to prison, ended up in the “lunatic asylum” for a while and was eventually granted a pardon.

Strong Poison (Dorothy Sayers)

I don't think I'll ever get tired of reading and re-reading anything that Dorothy Sayers has written. (with the exception of her scholarly works - like her translation of Dante's Divine Comedy!) And this is the book where Lord Peter Wimsey first meets his future wife - the savvy Harriet Vane, writer of mystery novels who has been wrongly accused of poisoning her former lover. Lord Peter, ever on the scene when there is a mystery to be solved, immediately suspects she is innocent and steps in to prove it, especially since he has decided that she is the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with. Harriet on the other hand, isn't so sure and as it turns out it takes two more books (Have his Carcase and Gaudy Night)before she makes up her mind.

Final Payments (Mary Gordon)

This is a book about a young woman’s efforts to come to terms with who she is after having spent 11 years of her life caring for her invalid father. It’s about people who refuse to allow themselves to be happy, and what can happen to them when they cannot let go of their illusions about who they want other people to think they are. It’s about how difficult it is to face our insecurities, weaknesses, and obsessions in order to make changes that are difficult to make. I first read it 30 years ago and what struck me most forcibly back then was the way Gordon captured what it was like carrying around the kind of baggage that remained behind for those of us who were raised in staunchly observant Catholic families in the late 50’s and early 60’s. Even though I think I’ve gotten rid of most of that baggage, re-reading this book brought a lot of it back into focus.

Room (Emma Donaghue)

I was skeptical about whether the author would be able to carry off the voice of a five year old child who had spent his entire life living with his mother trapped in a tiny little room. My verdict is that she succeeded. The plot intrigued me but what I liked best about the book were the characters: Jake was at the same time achingly innocent and wise beyond his five years. And his mother's fierce determination to create as normal a life as possible for her son while at the same time scheming to escape their prison made her a compelling character.

Least Favorites:

Yiddish Policeman’s Union (Michael Chabon)

I kept plugging away at this expecting that sooner or later I'd get as enthused as I was by the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. But it never happened. The plot - an alternative history look at what might have happened had the post holocaust Jews been unable to settle in Israel after WWII and instead were granted temporary residence in Alaska -- was just far fetched enough to intrigue me. And the mystery about who killed the heroin addicted, gay potential Messiah and ex-wonder child who was also a chess prodigy hooked me once I got into it. But in the end the book just didn't deliver. Equally mysterious is the question of how this novel could possibly have won two prestigious awards for science fiction writing!!

The Story of Edgar Sawtille (David Wroblewski)

The problem with belonging to a book discussion group is having to waste valuable reading time on a book like this one. Initially I was drawn to the character of the mute young boy who used sign language to communicate with the dogs he and his family were training. And I did enjoy the parts of the book that had to do with the dogs themselves - especially since they seemed so real (and so lovable!) But beyond that….I can nothing else positive to say about this book.

The Last Wife of Henry VIII (Carolly Erickson)

The only reason I read this was because for some strange reason I’m a sucker for all things Tudor. Usually I'm a little more discriminating about books I read that have to do with this period, so it beats me why I kept reading after I discovered that the author had taken enormous liberties with the life of Catherine Parr, Henry VIII's last wife. Not only were facts and dates distorted, important characters eliminated and others invented but equally unfortunate was Erickson’s tendency to lapse into a writing style that seemed closer to what might be expected between the covers of a romance novel, or the script of a soap opera. And yet I suppose I shouldn't be so critical. After all, I kept right on reading.

In translation:

Out Stealing Horses (Per Pederson)

The reader is gradually drawn into what the main character is remembering about an incident that happened back in 1948 when he and his father spent a summer in a remote cabin in Norway..What I found most remarkable about this book is how adept the author was at letting us discover the depth of Trond’s feelings even though Trond himself was so unable to articulate them.

Re-read:

Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)

Strong Poison (Dorothy Sayers)

Final Payments (Mary Gordon)

Most Depressing

Famine (Liam O’Flaherty)

Oldest

Huckleberry Finn

Most recent:

Room

Recommended by others

Dogs of Bedlam Farm (Jon Katz, recommended by Lissa Brown)

Barn at the End of the World (Mary Rose O’Reilley, recommended by Paul Tanner)

Wolf Hall (Hillary Mantel, recommended by Paul Tanner)

The Help(Kathryn Stockett, recommended by my mother)

Best Title

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

Favorite Character

Lord Peter Wimsey (Strong Poison) is at the top of my list of fictional characters I would most like to be able to spend some time with! But it would have to be a strictly Platonic relationship because after all he is a married man, completely devoted to Harriet Vane after having had to work so hard to convince her to marry him. But I’m in love with him nonetheless which is why I’ll keep on reading and re-reading all the books Dorothy Sayers has written with him in the spotlight.

Books by authors who were siblings – both were Vita Sackville-West’s grandchildren

The Perfect Summer – Juliet Nicolson

Sissinghurst – Adam Nicolson

Favorite quotes:

The next day dawned bright and fair, and Wimsey felt a certain exhilaration as he purred down to Tweedling Parva. ‘Mrs. Merdle’, the car was sparking merrily on all twelve cylinders, and there was a touch of frost in the air. These things conduce to high spirits. (Strong Poison)

If we were all on trial for our thoughts, we would all be hanged. (Alias Grace)

Time is important to me now, I tell myself. Not that it should pass quickly or slowly, but only be time, be something I live inside and fill with physical things and activities that I can divide it up by. So that it grows distinct to me and does not vanish when I am not looking. (Out Stealing Horses)

Reading challenges

image by Deborah DeWitt Marchant

Thanks to my good friend Emma, I've discovered a plethora of readers' blogs and reading challenges. Some of them are fairly complicated - with ground rules, sign up forms, feedback links, point systems and award procedures based on the number of books completed by a certain date. Others are much more relaxed, consisting simply of categories and tags for selecting books to be read in the coming months. I opted for the latter and had fun looking around until I finally decided on the "Back to the Classics" challenge:

And here's my list:

A Banned Book: Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

A Book with a Wartime Setting (any war) - The Winds of War, Herman Wouk

A Pulitzer Prize (fiction) Winner - The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck (1935)

A Children's Classic - The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Graham

19th Century Classic - Middlemarch, George Elliot

20th Century Classic - The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton

A book that could be considered a 21st Century classic - ????

A book to re-read from college - Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky

A Year's Worth of Reading: 2009

The beginning of a new year of reading is also, for many people, a time to look back over what was read last year. And so, inspired by my friend Linda I think I’ll try to use some of her categories in addition to a few of my own to look back on what I read in 2009. But first, a few observations about reading (from Ruined by Reading by Lynne Sharon Schwartz)

“I can vacillate lengthily, and foolishly, over whether to read at random or in some programmed way. I cling to the principle that if randomness determines the universe it might as well determine my reading too.”

“When every so often I have a spasm of needing to get organized, I make lists of books to read. In between reading the books on the list I am sidetracked by the books pressed on me by friends, or the shelved books demanding loudly, after much postponement, to be read right away. . .if only they knew the convoluted agonies of choice.”

Bookworm, Carl Spitzweg

Books read in 2009 : 36

Books started and abandoned: 6
Because I’ve finally caught on to the fact that life is just too short to mess around with books I can’t “get into”, I’m happy to report that I felt no remorse in tossing aside the following books before I’d finished (but not before I wasted too much of my valuable reading time trying to give them a chance.)

• Oh Play that Thing by Roddy Doyle(I don’t like the way he writes and the fact that it’s too damn hard figuring out who’s talking to whom since he doesn’t use quotation marks)

• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (a long, ponderous and silly attempt at writing a page turner a la Dan King)

• That they may Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern (the descriptions of the Irish countryside and the peope who lived there were lovely but I kept falling asleep)

• Bard by Morgan Llewellyn (I should never have let myself be suckered in by the title and the fact that the author is Welsh)

• Land Circle by Linda Hasselstrom (just about made it through this one because some of her essays about women ranchers in Montana kept me reading.)

• Here there be Dragons by James Owen (I have to admit I picked this out solely because of the title. Perhaps I was expecting another Wizard of Earthsea but this definitely was not it. Although I loved the cover illustration )

Fiction/Non-Fiction ratio: 21/15

Male/Female authors ratio: 16/15

Books by the same author: 7

• Good evening Mrs Craven, and One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes
• A Long, Long Way, and the Secret Scriptures by Sebastian Barry
• Deadman’s Ransom, Monk’s Hood, and St. Peter’s Fair by Ellis Peters

Re-Reads: 2

• One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes
• Mysticism for Modern Times, Willigis Jaeger

Oldest: Good Evening Mrs. Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes (published between 1939 and 1944)

Newest: The Secret Scriptures,Sebastian Barry (2008)

Best Title: Ruined by Reading by Lynn Sharon Schwartz

In Translation: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, translated by Alison Anderson

Set in Great Britain - 11

Favorite: A Long, Long Way by Sebastian Barry

I was captivated by this book and kept marveling at how such a grim subject (World War I) could be written about in such a beautiful way. Willie Dunne, a young Irish boy barely 18 years old goes off to fight in WWI - fighting for the English - while back at home in his native Dublin the fight for independence is causing him to confront political issues he had never thought about before...especially as the devoted son of a loving father who has been a policeman, loyal to king and country, all his life. The book gives us a poignant look into Willie's heart as he struggles with his feelings for his family, the girl he hopes to marry, his country and his fellow soldiers in his regiment, while all the while facing the horror and violence of trench warfare. All of this would be gripping enough, but in the hands of a writer like Sebastian Barry it becomes the kind of book that is hard to put down if for no other reason than the way its written. Here's an example:

"They stood there two feet apart in all that vale of tears, one man was asking another how he was, the other asking how the other was, the one not knowing truly what the world was, the other not knowing either. One nodded to the other now in an expression of understanding without understanding, of saying without breathing a word. And the other nodded back to the other, knowing nothing. Not this new world of terminality and astonishing dismay, of extremity of ruin and exaggeration of misery. And Father Buckley did not know anything but grief, and Willie Dunne on that black day likewise."

Shortest and Sweetest: Lights on a Ground of Darkness by Ted Kooser
Only 60 pages, but every bit of it was beautifully written and meant to be savored (and what else would you expect from a Pulitzer Prize winner and former poet laureate of the U.S.?) It’s a gentle tribute to his family, written in the form of a reminiscence of a summer visit to his maternal grandparents who lived in Guttenberg, a sleepy little Iowa Mississippi River town:

"But for now it is summer, 1949, and I am a little boy. Our time with our grandparents is over. My father has come to drive us home. Before we leave, he fills his arms with tiger lilies picked beside the house, and we start out walking up the gravel road to the cemetery. It is now too late for irises. They have shriveled to rags. My sister and I walk on either side of him. I look back and see my grandmother is stooped in her garden, picking a few vegetables for us to take home. My uncle shuffles across the yard toward the filling station..."

Best Spiritual Reading: From Sand to Solid Ground by Michael Morewood,
and Radical Optimism by Beatrice Brueau.

And finally...

• Books from the library: 5
• Books from Paperbackswap: 16
• Books purchased from Alibris.com:10
• Books purchased in a bookstore: 3
• Books found on my bookshelves: 2

A very long post entitled BOO, HISS

Recently I popped into Barnes and Noble to take advantage of their after Christmas sale and there, just inside the front entrance, was a display that raised my hackles. (And I should probably add that my hackles do not easily get raised – especially in public.) A rather sheepish looking but terribly earnest young man was in the process of telling a handful of curious readers all about the new Barnes and Noble E-Reader.

I was outraged! First the big box book stores came to town and bullied my beloved Canterbury Bookshop into shutting its doors. (I still mourn its demise. It was a true haven for people who love to read – a warm and comfortable place filled with a great selection of books that were perfect for browsing. There were comfortable chairs tucked away in little nooks and crannies where we could spend as long as we liked flipping through the pages of whatever had caught our fancy. Best of all there was Trudy, the gentle wisp of a bookseller whose inspiration it was to create Canterbury Bookshop in the first place and who treated her customers as if she had opened the shop specifically for them.) But I digress. It's bd enough that Borders, and Barnes and Nobles have pretty much taken over the book selling business. But at least they were selling books. Now it looks like books could be headed for the same fate as independent booksellers – at least that’s what the people who have brought us e-books would have us believe.

But to get back to my reaction upon seeing the e-book display at Barnes and Noble....as I was saying, I was outraged! Which was why I huffed myself up and marched right over to the display and tossed out an angry BOO, HISS as a means of letting it be known that I for one am not going to take lightly this assault on what, in my opinion, is one of humankind's finest acheivements - the creation of the book.

I think my love of books probably began way back when I was small enough to nestle up next to my mother as she read to my brother and me. It was a gift she gave me and it reminds me of that rather schmaltzy little ditty by Strictland Gillilan that ends with the lines... "You may have tangible wealth untold; caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be – I had a mother who read to me.”


I can remember looking at those mysterious squiggly looking shapes on the page in front of her as she read and thinking that reading was a very magical thing, and someday I would be able to do it all by myself.

Mother tells me that the first time she took me to the children’s room of our local library (in the basement of one of those wonderful old Carnegie libraries that, sadly enough, was demolished in the 70’s and replaced with something much more up to date but greatly lacking in ambiance) I took one look at all the books and told her I planned to read every one of them.


It was just the beginning of a life long passion for books. And the older I get, the more that passion grows. At age 64 it’s a sobering thought to realize that even if I were to spend every waking hour of the rest of my life with my nose in a book I would probably not make it to the end of the list of books I hope to read in my lifetime. That’s because I keep adding titles to that list. As a result the bookshelves in our house (and there are many of them) keep getting crammed with more and more books.



Sometimes I fantasize about spending an entire week, or maybe a month if I really wanted to be decadent, reading in bed. I’d only have to emerge now and then, long enough to go to the bathroom and perhaps take a shower if absolutely necessary.

But to return to my original subject – my rant against E-books: Part of the problem I have with the whole concept of electronic books is that they simply aren’t books. They’re gadgets that allow a person to have instant access to words, which is fine, but books do more than merely present me with a bunch of words. I think the difference has to do with why we read in the first place. If we’re reading simply to acquire information, there’s no doubt that E-books will deliver. The technology makes it possible to search around on the internet for the information you’re seeking, click on a link and then download what you’ve found to your computer, IPOD, laptop, or (I presume) your E-reader. So, it’s fine for those who are looking for immediate access to information. But...that’s certainly not the only reason I read.

I read for the sheer and exhilarating pleasure that books can provide. Not only the pleasure that comes from reading words, but just as importantly for the sensory pleasure that goes along with taking a book off the shelf and experiencing what’s inside.

For me, reading is a sensory pleasure. Take the way books smell, for example. Admittedly this may seem a little odd, but one of the first things I do when I open a new book is take a good sniff or two. (Appropriately enough, for someone who has been accused of spending too much time with her nose in a book.) I don’t know what it is about certain books, but there’s something about the way they smell that is definitely one of my all time favorite fragrances. Maybe it’s because the first book that smelled that way was one my mother read to me. It was a big, thick story book and I used to put my face right down next to the pages so I could smell the magic that was there as mother read about fairy princesses and golden spinning wheels and enchanted castles. Every once in a while I find a book that exudes that very same magical fragrance and I’m reminded once again of how wonderful it is to wander into the realm of the make-believe. I have never sniffed an E-reader, but I have a feeling it wouldn’t do much for me.

Neither would the way it feels. Books on the other hand are wonderfully tactile. We have a small collection of books that were printed at the turn of the previous century by the Roycrofters , a community of artists and artisans that flourished in East Aurora, New York around the turn of the previous century and was instrumental in influencing the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States.


Roycrofter books are works of art in and of themselves. Some of them feature suede or even leather bindings and covers. . .



. . . and all of them are beautifully printed on fine quality paper and embellished with hand-colored initials and illuminations by the artists who worked for the Press.



There’s just no way an E-book could ever capture what makes these books such a pleasure to pick up...and feel....and look at....and read.

I think that part of the pleasure of books is visual. Some books are lavishly illustrated and a sheer joy to look at not only because of the skill and artistry that went into creating the illustrations but also because of the way they are laid out on the page in order to correspond to the text. Here is an example from , The Illuminated Rumi, by Coleman Barks and Michael Greene.


It’s hard to imagine an e-book doing credit to these beautiful illustrations – or the way they have been presented as part of the text itself. So for someone who loves to read, not only because of the words found on the page, but also for the sensory pleasure of the book itself, an E-book just isn’t going to provide what I’m looking for. And as for what the earnest young man at Barnes and Noble pointed out about how portable these electronic gadgets are, I have to repeat what I said earlier: Boo, hiss. Unless for some inconceivable reason I might want to lug around a volume containing all the works of Shakespeare, or perhaps the Oxford dictionary in its entirety, most books I want to take with me can be carried along quite easily. Granted I have been known to pack entire boxes of books to take along when leaving for a vacation because I simply can’t imagine going anywhere without a generous supply of books. Nevertheless, I’d still rather do it that way than pack a single E-book. For all the reasons I’ve already mentioned.

For Christmas I received as I always do, several books I’d been hoping I’d get. One of them is Classics for Pleasure, by Michael Dirda, the book critic for the Washington Post and author of several other books about the joys of reading, including An Open Book, a memoir about how he came to be such a book lover. No sooner had I started the introduction to his latest book than I came across another good reason for why I can’t imagine living without good books to read. He says:

“More than anything else, great books speak to us of our own very real feelings and failings, of our all-too-human daydreams and confusions...Sappho’s heartache is that of anyone who has ever been hopelessly in love. Ernst Junger’s Storm of Steel starkly reveals both the horror and exhilaration of war. The Book of Common Prayer reliably comforts us in times of sorrow, uplifts us in times of celebration....On those evenings when the world is too much with us, 221B Baker Street, home to Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, has long offered a warm fire and snug refuge. Come April or May, we will always awake some Saturday morning like Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden, to the wonder and beauty of spring.”

Now, some may argue that all of that is just as possible by down-loading any of those titles on to an E-reader as it is by taking them off a shelf somewhere. I’m not so sure. All it takes for me is to compare the following two versions of Jane Austen's beloved Pride and Prejudice to convince me which one I'd rather pick up and read....