The Seven-Hour Reading Meditation
My husband and I read a Christmas essay by a woman so harried by the hectic preparations that she retreats after the feast to read for seven hours, leaving the kids and clean-up to her husband.
We had nothing too challenging planned on Christmas, so decided that we, too, would read for seven hours . It was a Zen experience. The whole neighborhood was unusually quiet, and the reading deepened the quiet.
I hope to repeat the Seven-Hours experience soon. No idea what I’ll read. Right now it’s 50-50 contest between Maeve Binchy, author of comfort reads, and the challenging James Joyce, whose early works I much prefer to his modernist masterpieces. Boh are Irish writers, but have nothing else in common. (Joyce, Binchy, Binchy, Joyce, Which?)
Any recommendations?
Jane Eyre in an Alternate Universe
If you’re wondering, “What’s happening in the attic at Thornfield Hall?”, you WILL be glad to learn that Bertha Mason has not burned down the house. But you must visit an alternate Jane Eyre universe to understand one possible outcome of Rochester’s casual attitude toward bigamy.
Jane is shocked to learn at the altar that Rochester keeps a mad wife in the attic. Bertha’s brother stands up and objects when Jane and Rochester are about to exchange their vows. Poor Jane is madly in love, but is horrified to learn that anyone, even a mad woman, should be imprisoned in a dark attic to be cared for by Grace Poole, an alcoholic who often fell asleep on the job.
And so Jane made an escape plan for Bertha. The mission: for Jane and Bertha to leave through the front door in the dead of night. Fortunately, there was no need to slither down a ladder made of knotted sheets. Neither woman was athletic. They used the front door like the mistresses of the house they almost were. Jane delivered Bertha to her cousins’ house, which Diana and Mary have converted into a refuge for the poor and needy. Bertha is now well enough to help them: she divides her free time between baking whimsical cakes and reading the latest novels by Mr. Trollope.
Meanwhile, Jane has become a free-thinker, much to the chagrin of her minister cousin, the fanatical St. John. Jane’s new philosophy will enable Mr. Rochester and herself to be united in free love. Since Bertha lives, marriage is not an option, but it’s a happy ending for an alternative universe.
Brava, Jane! That said, I much prefer Charlotte Bronte’s dramatic Jane Eyre.
Keeping up with Pop Culture: New Books
Help! I love pop culture, but the only pop I’ve absorbed is that Taylor Swift is or was dating one of the Bills. I learned this from the many, many Bills fans I am privileged to know. I haven’t seen Swift’s concert movie and I don’t watch football, so this gossip is wasted on me.
Bookish gossip is more my kind of thing. I would like to read a few good new books to keep up with pop literary trends. Any recommendations? There are so many new writers whose work I don’t know.
Thanks for your help!