Reading in Public

Last night I was busy at a gathering, a fundraiser for the school library. The thought was to gather as many parents and students together as possible and have them read for 6 hours. You got to sit on the floor and read with your kid in public. Such a novel way of raising funds for more books. I agreed to this only because at times I feel that the only answer I ever give my son is "no". I thought that since I love to read and never seem to have enough time to do the thing that I really love to do ( really it is all about me, and my needs) it would be an OK thing to sign up for. The pledge sheet came home with the line "only one pledge needed to guarantee your entry". Yes, you had to collect money to go read. Easy enough, I knew Russel had $10 sitting on his dresser so I signed him up ( relax I put money in too). Pledges were not the most pressing issue in this bonding exercise ( I so miss my books and the time we used to have together) what was more important was, what was I going to read in public? I don't very often notice what type of shoes people are wearing, or brand of blue jean or really any other thing about them, but, if they are reading, I stand up and take notice. What a person reads is a precursor as to what sort of person you are dealing with. Think about it. If a person only reads romance novels, chances are they have no romance in their lives so they need to live vicariously through other maidens/damsels/handsome dudes lives. A friendship with them could turn into a very needy,dependant friendship. In other words, you will have no free time and every conversation with them will only be about how they wish they could find someone special to share their world with (gag me with a spoon). In a world that is full of e-harmony ads and other Internet matching sites it is no wonder that romance novels are outselling murder mysteries. There are just so many lonely, unhappy people out there. So if I see someone reading a romance novel out in public I think " Aw, poor person, they must be so lonely and empty and sad to have to advertise for love on the bus". If I see someone reading one of the old classics, like, Catcher in the Rye, I think, aha, someone who just doesn't want to live in today's world. They are still firmly ensconced in some happier time in their earlier days. If I see someone who has put a brown paper cover on their reading material of choice, I take the seat next to them. I wanna know what they are reading that is so top secret that they dare not share the information with the general public. This person is someone I want to say "hi" to and start reading over their shoulder. So with all this information in my brain I want to be sure that I present the proper image for the read -a -thon. Romance novel, I think not, I don't want people thinking that I am a sap when it comes to love. Murder mystery, don't want to scare anyone off from talking to me, I mean they give a lot of "pertinent" information in those books, saves me a lot of research time. The Karma Sutra, too big and really just a picture book, and I don't want to form a whole new group of friends. My spells and incantations workbook, hmmm, tempting, but some things are just better left under the cloak of discretion. No, I chose to take a book that is mainstream without being upstream, conformist without being linear. I took the Dan Brown novel, Lost Symbol. I like his work and I will tell you why. He writes a good story, and assumes that you the reader has a smidgen of intelligence to understand some of the scientific concepts which prevail in all of his novels (not just the religious stuff) but more importantly he ignites a quest in me to find more information on the very subjects that he writes about. After reading Da Vinci Code I had to investigate further the life of Leonardo. What an intriguing persona. That to me is the sign of a good read, one that makes you think about what really is, or has gone on in our world and the need to find out more. Oh, my son, well, he chose to read the National Geographic on the reading night, he said it was easier to look at the pictures and still talk to his friends. After all for him it was strictly a social event, one to see his friends and prove that he is one of the gang, that he is allowed to stay up late and have some fun... once in a while.
Checking out for now,
Cat x