Good Reads

Don't know why I have such a hard time keeping up with this journal. Perhaps it has been because both my kids are on their spring vacation. I don't know. I promised myself I wouldn't be apologetic; and yet I also feel the need to promise to be more faithful in the future.

Anyway, as to my latest read, it is Pat Conroy's My Reading Life. The man is certainly a gifted writer, and anyone who enjoys the sound of language or who enjoys languid descriptions of the lovely Charleston, South Carolina, will do well to read him. This is a memoir of sorts seen through the eyes of the adolescent reader who one day grows up to be the world famous and prolific writer he has become. It is a lovely guided tour through the classics, describing what Conroy looks for in a novel ("everything!") and shedding light not only on his process, but also the environment which shaped his world. Conroy, who claims to read 200 pages per day, sets the bar very high. Highly recommended.