Wednesday, January 21, 2015

What I'm Reading, Week 3

You're thinking, "Oh, man, I missed weeks 1 and 2!" Welp, no you didn't, and I'm not a man. It's merely the third week of the year. Herein I will describe what I'm currently reading in my quest to complete 100 books in one calendar year. Accountability, yo.


I'm currently on these two suckers, A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz, and Madeline L'Engle's perennial favorite, A Wrinkle in Time.

Horwitz's book, which I'm only a little ways into, seems to be somewhere between a historical study and a travelogue. His charming writing explores the history of America between Columbus and the Pilgrims, more or less. I'm quite enjoying it so far; and, although I have a weakness for American colonial history, I think it'd be interesting to a wider range of people than just fanatics like myself.

A Wrinkle in Time, published in 1962 and winner of the Newbery Medal for that year, first crossed my path about 13 years ago, sometime in middle school. I loved it upon first reading and I love it even more now, if possible. The story brings up issues both mundane (feeling like an outcast in school) and fantastical (saving one's father from intergalactic enemies) and uses them to probe deeper meanings of life, probably for the first time in the experience of the book's intended audience. Really, though this is my umpteenth re-reading and tinged with more than a little nostalgia, it makes me think a little more broadly. If you never read it, you missed out, so go ahead and just power through. I'm almost done, it's only a good few hours of reading for an adult.

Have any of you read these? What did you think?

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