Books and Book People

I promised over a week ago that I was going to start keeping a reading log again in this format. My father started me logging many years ago - he had done it for years and thought I might find it interesting. I used to log 150 to 200 books a year. Then, after over twenty years in high tech industry, I started teaching school. Sounds pretty straight-forward - but the transition from unemployed systems analyst to teacher took almost ten years.

The first year I taught school, my reading log dropped to around fifty entries. And after a couple of years I gave it up completely. I have wasted some time trying to figure out why this was the case. Part of it was that I felt that I should read what I assigned my students to read - seems only fair. Many of my colleagues did not agree with me. I remember my horror when one of them looked at me in total bewilderment and said, "But why would you bother? I read The Scarlet Letter in high school and I still remember it perfectly well." Fortunately for the sake of peace in the department, I was so stunned that I (unusual situation) was at a loss for words. What I would have told her was that I was no longer the person I had been in high school and that I should be able to both bring to and take away from the book more than I had back then. More importantly, if a book is not worth rereading, then why are we forcing students to read it in the first place? The future is unlikely to turn on whether or not one can name the principal characters and themes of a particular 18th century novel.

One might think that a high school English department would be a concentration of book people. One would be wrong. There were a couple of book people in the department - but the third in our building underground was the French teacher, besides I was only part-time in the department - I spent the rest of my day teaching math and computer science.

I belong to a book club composed primarily of people who have or have had some connection with that high school. A few English teachers, a few librarians, some teachers from other departments, secretaries, and some that we have picked up along the way. My main motivation for joining was to read some things that I might not ordinarily read. I have my own reading rut, which cycles from murder to fantasy to science fiction with a rare foray into something different. Now I can depend on "having to" read something else on a fairly regular basis. We take turns choosing - alphabetical order, host's choice. My turn is coming up soon and I am juggling several options. I have faithfully read most of the members' selections, even a few which I would just as soon not have read.

I have a few reliable sources of recommendations - a good friend that I meet with regularly to discuss our writing (although precious little of that has taken place in the last few weeks - the novel may have to wait for end of term), one of my sisters who is an even bigger murder and SF fan than I am, and a friend where I work now - our offices were next door to each other for a year and we did a lot of book talking. Now the Math Department has moved me down to their own little corridor (to keep an eye on me, I think) so we have to sneak off and have lunch sometimes.