post for class

As an avid reader, the requirements for this class have been manageable. I would rather read a book than….well, just about everything. As a kid I used reading as a way to avoid chores. Mom never made me stop reading to make my bed or do laundry. Reading was more important. As an adult, I have followed that philosophy. Many a day I have spent reading while the laundry piles up and dishes have gone unmade. I could even confess to children (my own) begging me to put down a book and cook supper...PLEASE!!

So now after all this reading for class, I am craving a good book. Not one for class, not one that I have to write a review or summary for, not one that connects to anything. Just a good book—one I can fall into and let the laundry pile up again. Well, I think I found that book. It is waiting for me. Even though it is waiting patiently, it leaves me little reminders. At the theater I saw a trailer for the movie it has become and Saturday I saw it sitting on a shelf. Yes, just sitting there waiting patiently for me on a shelf in Room 137. And, since it was the 10 minute break during the ACT test I was monitoring (another story) I decided to pick it up. In ten minutes I fell in love, I almost even fell into the story, but the timer went off and I got back to work watching fresh faced high schoolers search their brains for answers to many of life’s important questions. I had to leave the book because it wasn’t mine but I am coveting it. I want it for my own. It is the carrot I hold out as I push through these final weeks of the semester. It will be my graduation gift to myself.

I only had time to read the author’s notes before the timer rang. I read it so quickly I don’t even remember the words, just the feeling it left me holding. The author told of writing a book that didn’t work. Each element perfect alone. Each element refusing to blend with the others. The author told this story of failure with such clarity that I wanted to share his words with my students so they would know that all experience failure. To know that this deep failure results in a novel that has become a movie brought wonder to me. I fell in love with this forward.

As I began to research this book for this assignment I have begun to have doubts. See-- I have now lost my book to just read…it is an assignment now! Upon searching the web for this book I have learned that the author is Yann Martel. I have also discovered naysayers, negative Nellie’s, and spoiler alerts. Apparently this forward I had fallen in love with is indeed fictitious. Really! I am not for sure if I am taken aback or just taken in. According to numerous reviews this story, Live of Pi, is about a boy shipwrecked with a Bengal tiger…or maybe not. Perhaps it is a story about discovering God or some form of spirituality. Or perhaps it is just a good book. A book I can fall into. How many days until graduation?