book 'em dan-o!
i am the first to admit that i am a (semi)recovering book snob.
for the longest time, the only thing i would read was non-fiction. in my library one would primarily find books relating to the american west frontier, sports, or the civil war. i would see people reading the latest michael crichton or john grisham offering and think, "oh, how fun it must be to be caught up in literary pop culture." as for me, i had no desire to be a low-brow, band-wagon fiction reader. fiction best sellers were well beneath me.
this thinking remained with me for a long while, until one december we went to colorado to visit family. while visiting my aunt rosie, she offered to lend me her copy of a book written by tony hillerman. i had heard of this author before, and had been interested in reading some of his material; but, i could never remember his name when i was at a book store. mr. hillerman writes mystery novels set on the navajo reservation of arizona, utah, and new mexico. this appealed to me greatly due to my previous residence on the reservation. i took her up on her offer. it was a great collection. the stories were fun and easy to read. they were well researched and full of historical, cultural, and political analysis. i became aware that there was a chance that my snobbery was foolish and not well-founded...perhaps i was missing out on some fun reading as a result of my pretension.
i decided to change my ways. sure, most of my purchases are still histories or biographies. it should be this way, because this is what interests me; but, i have read (and purchased) a healthy amount of fiction in the most recent 10 years. last week i was tested anew. i determined to read "the count of monte cristo." i believe i read it in middle school, but haven't touched it since. accordingly, i went down to half-price books in search of my prize. i found two versions. one was unabridged, and appeared to be thicker than "war and peace." i prefer the unabridged; but, this looked to be too much for my needs. the second choice offered was an abridged version printed after the release of the 2002 disney movie of the same title. what to do? nothing screams reactionary bourgeois reader like a book with a movie poster reprinted as its cover. i couldn't help myself. despite the howling protests in my head, i took the best seller version to the counter and paid. i just couldn't bear to face the 1500 pages of the original. 500 is plenty for me. my solace comes from the fact that this version is an abridgement of the original text-not a copy of the screen play. that is something i could never do.
nevertheless, i like a little rebellion now and then.
for the longest time, the only thing i would read was non-fiction. in my library one would primarily find books relating to the american west frontier, sports, or the civil war. i would see people reading the latest michael crichton or john grisham offering and think, "oh, how fun it must be to be caught up in literary pop culture." as for me, i had no desire to be a low-brow, band-wagon fiction reader. fiction best sellers were well beneath me.
this thinking remained with me for a long while, until one december we went to colorado to visit family. while visiting my aunt rosie, she offered to lend me her copy of a book written by tony hillerman. i had heard of this author before, and had been interested in reading some of his material; but, i could never remember his name when i was at a book store. mr. hillerman writes mystery novels set on the navajo reservation of arizona, utah, and new mexico. this appealed to me greatly due to my previous residence on the reservation. i took her up on her offer. it was a great collection. the stories were fun and easy to read. they were well researched and full of historical, cultural, and political analysis. i became aware that there was a chance that my snobbery was foolish and not well-founded...perhaps i was missing out on some fun reading as a result of my pretension.
i decided to change my ways. sure, most of my purchases are still histories or biographies. it should be this way, because this is what interests me; but, i have read (and purchased) a healthy amount of fiction in the most recent 10 years. last week i was tested anew. i determined to read "the count of monte cristo." i believe i read it in middle school, but haven't touched it since. accordingly, i went down to half-price books in search of my prize. i found two versions. one was unabridged, and appeared to be thicker than "war and peace." i prefer the unabridged; but, this looked to be too much for my needs. the second choice offered was an abridged version printed after the release of the 2002 disney movie of the same title. what to do? nothing screams reactionary bourgeois reader like a book with a movie poster reprinted as its cover. i couldn't help myself. despite the howling protests in my head, i took the best seller version to the counter and paid. i just couldn't bear to face the 1500 pages of the original. 500 is plenty for me. my solace comes from the fact that this version is an abridgement of the original text-not a copy of the screen play. that is something i could never do.
nevertheless, i like a little rebellion now and then.
posted by cm at 9/21/2006
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