The Bus Ride Home

I do not read much before bedtime. However, I do read on the bus. And seeing as how I have between 1.5 and 2 hours to ride the bus everyday, I do have a lot of reading time.

I do not always read so quickly though, because the bus is also sleep time. Though I have been able to finish four books in the last month. The World According To Garp, Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, Tai-Pan and No Country For Old Men. Three are between 600-700 pages. And No Country For Old Men is 300 pages.

I began Garp first, and I think it was the most well written. It it is a story about what it is to be human. Garp is an everyday person and it is about the craziness of the life he goes through. It seems to me that it is a sort of auto biography of the writer: John Irving. As you follow T.S. Garp through his life, do be prepared to laugh at the most awkward moments during this story. Though not as beautiful as Marquez, nor as profound as Kerouc, Garp is a solid read and a good way to pass the time.

At the same time I was reading Garp, i was also reading The Butlerian Jihad. This is a furthering of the dune chronicles. Please understand that those of us who like Sci-Fi think that DUNE might be the best Sci-Fi novel ever written. In fact, I put Dune right next to One Hundred Years of Solitude and the Bible on my wall of fiction. Now, as for this "jihad", it is not a strong, life altering read by any means. It did pass the time well enough, but along the lines of one of the early Batman movies (i.e, the jihad) compared to The Dark Knight (think Dune). If you have not read the other books in the two different Dune series, then you might like this one...

Being a novice historian, I tend to like historical fiction. And James Clavell tends to do this type of fiction very well. From begining to end I enjoyed reading Tai Pan. It is the story of the beginning of Hong Kong. Though I did like Shogun better, tai pan was easier to read all of the way through. Watching the British out think
and out maneuver their advisories always gives me pause to wonder about how much trust any one should put with the British. All in all, a good read.

Now the last book I have finished is more difficult for me to talk about. I am not sure why though. No Country For old Men has sat in my mind for a long time. It was made into a movie that is as close to the book as any movie since Star wars, but reading the book did not seem to explain why this work has always left me thinking about what it is. I think that it is a study of the bad side of existence. I think that it is about someone who has spent a life surrounded by evil and evil events, but does not see that evil is innate in the world until he runs into the after effects of one Anton Chigurgh (sugar), who is evil personified. If you have seen the movie, you really do not need to read the book, and vice versa. This is the most disturbing and probably the most profound of the recent readings I have done.

Remember, whether you read or not, continue to forever explore your own imagination. For it is limitless.