Derailed Reading

Half my life is in books' written pages
Living, learning from fools and from sages
You know it's true
All those things
Come back to you
--Aerosmith, "Dream On"

Remember way back when, I told y'all I was diving into East of Eden? Well, my train got derailed. I stalled somewhere around page 24. Not due to any fault with the book, mind you, but I assigned book groups to my students and I have been keeping up with their reading schedules on my own. Now, of course, I have already read all of the books I have assigned to them; however, after at least a year in all cases, I need to refresh my memory with all of them. The only book I haven't been very good at keeping up with is The Great Gatsby, and that's no big deal, because I've read that one about six times in the last six years. I am good with that one.

But, I have assigned eight different books to various groups in my various classes, so I have a lot to read: A Farewell to Arms, Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Not Without Laughter, Gatsby, My Antonia, and As I Lay Dying. Whew! Great books all, but I haven't had time for Eden. I have managed to sneak a page or two of The Member of the Wedding in there, though. Go figure.

Anyway, I haven't forgotten about the book. I'll get to it when I can. But it will be a week or two before I can even think about it. What can a man do?

In other news, I am sure you are wondering about the weather. I haven't mentioned it in about two days. It's good. Warming up, with temps consistently in the near-fifty range for the past few days. But that Tenacious Puppy Run of Death still terrorizes the denizens of Central Standard; however, I think it knows its days are numbered. Sunday and Monday were great, with the Spring-thinking sounds of running and dripping water all around. That which is not frozen is mud. That which is not mud is water. That which is not water is blacktop. And so on.

Of course, today was chicken nugget day, so, you know that's good, and Monkey made a hummingbird cake on Sunday. It was delish! And no hummingbirds were harmed in its making.