Literacy is Me!

Once Tracy suggested in a letter that she was thinking she might have to start a reader's journal, perhaps not just to keep track of everything she's read, but also opinions and feelings about the work. Well, I thought that was a great idea, and so last week, I started writing books down that I've read.

I suppose the intention is that you write down the books directly after you read them, but once I got started, I just couldn't stop. This doesn't mean I have written down everything I have ever read, as that would be impossible. It also doesn't mean I've written down the airplane books, which are too numerous to count, but it does mean I have written down books I liked, and even in one case a book I distinctly did not like, books that were well enough written for me to remember, if not the author, at least the title or vice versa.

I was looking over the list and I've gotta say, damn, I'm impressed. I have read some very good books. This doesn't even include the 20 or so books that I've started but not yet finished, as there are some classics in the mix there, nor the ones that are waiting beside my bed in a pile. But I really do have some decent taste in books.

I have realized that my previous reading selections are not nearly as varied as I would like, and I am working on that. Half of the cache of books I bought in Nagoya venture into the realms of social science, and history, but I am still lacking in poetry as I lean heavily towards fiction in my tastes. Not really so much on the side of science fiction though. Somehow I can't really meld those. Hmmm. Anyways, back to one of my current selections, called "Left Hand, Right Hand," which is a study of handedness and scientific theories that have existed in the past, leading up to phenomena of the present. Currently in the early going, where he is discussing theories and beliefs surrounding situs inversus, where one's nternal organs are perfectly transversed. Very interesting, I must say...