X it OFF the list.....

Sometimes I think about the point in history, If one had the where-with-all, when one could have read ALL THE ACTUAL PRINTED BOOKS IN EXISTENCE....(though when I think about it...this may have been even BEFORE Guttenburg invented the printing press in the 1400s...back when manuscripts were written out by HAND...by monks....)...

Granted you would have had to exert some sort of power, or otherwise have access to those books, ...been from some sort of priveledged class....(been able to read Latin etc.)...but it could have been DONE.

Nowadays, just the sheer magnitude of magazines published is enough to occupy one...assuming you wanted to read half the crap they contain....

We grew up around TONS of books....my Dad was constantly going to library sales and dusty old book stores...it pretty much cemented my love of the printed word....so that, even though I KNOW it is impossible to read all there is out there...I often seem like I am giving it a shot....sometimes I am reading 3 or four at a time...and I ALWAYS write down any recommendatons on a scrap of paper...

As if to start the new year on a good note...I FINALLY crossed one of those books off my list...that scrap of paper has been following me about for a couple of years (literally from the west coast to the east coast and back again....)..







It is called THE OUTER EDGES, BY CHARLES R. JACKSON....and my Dad told me I should read it a while ago...(It's the same author who wrote THE LOST WEEKEND that was made into a black and white film ages ago....)

It's about a really horrible murder and the way it effects everyone who comes into "contact" with the tragedy....If you have seen the lost weekend...or read any books written back in the 30s and 40s, they can come of a bit "melodramatic"....perhaps it is because the way people acted in movies back then or just the way people talked, period, by today's standards...Regardless, Charles Jackson not only makes his characters believable, but he really understands the motives behind peoples' actions....

.... Perhaps this is understandable, because on reading up a little on him, I discovered that Charles Jackson had had a bit of a hard life himself....a hardcore alcoholic (THE LOST WEEKEND is loosely veiled autobiography I think...), he ended up comitting suicide in the late 60s while only in his 50s....

They say "the sick oyster gives the pearl"...and while Mr. Jackson ain't around, this great book is...put it on your list if you have room...or not....see if I care......I am glad I finally got around to reading it.....sigh..............