books

Wow, It's kind of rainy and over cast outside. I am surprised.

Reading non fiction books has been really different for me. I am still working on West with the Night. It is beautifully written, the language is so lovely...yet I am kind of trudging through it. I think I am suffering from some kind of mental atrophy and it's hard to slosh through. I will finish it though and then start my much lighter southern authors, which will be perfect summer reads.

I recently read, well mostly, some I just skimmed through because frankly I just couldn't take it, Peace Mom. It was depressing and anti-American and profane really. I hated it. I recognize that I can not truly feel her pain since I have not given a son to freedom's cause but her reaction seems extreme and her anger a little misplaced. Her son volunteered and it seems to me that she is actually going against his own intentions and efforts in this zeal to bush-bash and her extreme pacifism. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and I hope she finds peace, it just made me sad for her and the wreckage she made out of her family in her inability to move on and find peace. Ironic.

In contrast I have been reading The Benjamin Franklin reader and I am thoroughly enjoying it. He was a delightful writer and a great thinker. I am only about half way through but it's been fun to read. Also his writing is wonderful, I love the way he puts words together and the pictures they draw in my mind.
I loved his rules for living :

1. It is necessary for me to be extremely frugal for some time, till I have paid what I owe.
2. To endeavor to speak the truth in every instance; to give nobody expectations that are not likely to be answered, but aim at sincerity in every word and action, the most amiable excellence in a rational being.
3. To applying myself industriously to whatever business I take in hand, and not divert my mind from my business by any foolish project of growing suddenly rich; for industry and patience are the surest means of plenty.
4. I resolve to speak ill of no man whatever, not even in a matter of truth; but rather by some means excuse the faults I hear charged upon others, and upon proper occasions speak all the good I know of every body.