reading log

Unfortunately I haven't updated my reading in a long time but much has passed: I dropped (perhaps only temporarily) Giles Goat-Boy because of John Barth's evident crudeness. I couldn't tell what he was for and what he was against, and I needed a little more moral strength in my life rather than reading about the sexual mishaps (due to isolation and abrupt exposure to society) of a boy who though he was a goat for 14 years. But I do respect what the boy is after -- which is to change the world (or, in Barth's lingo here: all of studentdom)(the whole book takes place in a university campus that runs like its own world). Unfortunately, that point wasn't really being focused upon and Barth got distracted from truth by the limitless options for weirdness in his university world.
I also finished the first volume of Either/Or by Soren Kierkegaard, to mixed reviews. He splits the book up into so many different section I find that I have to treat each section like its own writing. The book is more like a collection of writings in the voice of one man, and each writing has its own subject, moral, viewpoint, history, characters, etc. Though it all deals with the same philosophy. I just haven't figured it all together yet.
One weekend morning, I picked up The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) because I have been meaning to read it. And I was amazed at the rate at which I read each page. Like a hundred a day. And I finished it on that sunday night (two days later) but I continued to talk, write and think in Huck's dialect. I loved his life of adventure on the Mississippi. He built a raft in the snap of two fingers for an escape and it lasted theatrical rehearsals, storms, four people! But that is more evidence of Mark Twain's abilities to convince the reader of reality than evidence of impressing me truly (even though I want to be taken away by the amazing events, and convinced of the extraordinary -- its true).
And even more and more: I started and finished Aristophanes' The Frogs' a lovely comedy about Dionysis and the terrifically hard decision of "who's better: Euripides or Aeschelus?" a big dilemma, I know, of many these days. That play made me want to read more Greeks again -- they are really all quite clever, and amazingly true -- although this could be debated about Aristophanes . . . .he's quite a clown, him.
And for my research (and my life!), last but not least, The Next Great Thing a wonderful, wonderful book about Stirling Engines, Solar Power, and changing the world. It does a great job of describing stirling engines and thermodynamics as well as expressing the need and the frustrations surrounding this ground-breaking, world-changing, energy-efficient, and exaust-less technology. I love it half because it reminds me of someone I really like a lot, and half because it is teaching me everything I want to know (almost) and making me excited about the future.
Aren't you glad there is not more? I am. (But there is actually, I read a lot of books at one time, but those I haven't read enough to count in a log.)