Why I Enjoy Reading

I usually try to read a work of fiction per month. Like you, I've got my favorite authors and I'll grab their paperbacks ASAP when I see them. And, like you, every now and then I'll read a book because I know I want to see the movie. Maybe like you, every now and again, I'll take a chance on the "our staff recommends" shelf.

This time, I went with the movie variety...the movie "Revolutionary Road" goes into wide release Friday and I wanted to read the story before I caught the flick. I'd heard it's all about marriage relationships and involves the tension between settling for what life gives you rather than living your dreams.

I learned that the the book was actually written in 1961. It won awards.

Anyway, Richard Yates wrote this that I thought was provocative. It' describes the husband's reaction to his wife's community theatre play that failed:

"It [the play's failure] simply wasn't worth feeling bad about. Intelligent, thinking people could take things like this in their stride, just as they took the larger absurdities of deadly dull jobs in the city and deadly dull homes in the suburbs. Economic circumstance might force you to live in this environment, but the important thing was to keep from being contaminated. The important thing, always, was to remember who you were."

Some people look forward to 24. Stuff like this is the reason I'm looking forward to the next chapters.