A book to read 'till all hours
The Lighthouse Road
I am at the age where I finally have an excuse for the foibles of a lifetime: falling asleep at my desk, staying home from work for fear of driving in snow, losing keys, and not cleaning the bathtub regularly. One trait that I truly think has to do with age, or at least with the experience of age, is not reading to completion books that fail to hold my attention. I used to feel that I had to finish every book I started. I believed the author had done me the tremendous favor of writing this book and I was being rude or disrespectful if I didn’t read to the last paragraph. As a writer, I now feel that the author has to deserve the reader’s attention and I work hard in my writing to do just that. I am also aware with encroaching mortality that there are more good books to be read than I have time left to read them. So, if a book doesn’t catch me and hold me by about the third chapter, it goes into the pile for Goodwill. Happily, I feel no guilt whatever about this new freedom to read what I choose for as long as I choose.
I recently had the delightful experience of staying up until midnight to finish reading a book that not only caught my attention and held it, but that I have dreamed about and thought about in the days since. The book is The Lighthouse Road by Peter Geye. It is set in northern Minnesota, on Lake Superior. It is described on the back cover as: “A generational immigrant saga of logging camps, desperate winters, whiskey smuggling, heartache, boat building, and dangerous love.” That doesn’t cover the half of it. The sense of place is first, last and always in this book. The richness of his vocabulary for describing this bleak, dangerous place is amazing. I was sent to my dictionary at times, and I appreciate that very much. Reading should be a learning experience as well as an emotional one. What pulled me along, and kept me awake to through hours of reading, were the characters. These are not heroic figures by any stretch, but people caught at the edge of their goodness and the limit of their strength. They are characters I came to care about and champion, or to despise but desire to understand.
Carve out some time for yourself to savor The Lighthouse Road. You will be able to stay awake, I promise.
I am at the age where I finally have an excuse for the foibles of a lifetime: falling asleep at my desk, staying home from work for fear of driving in snow, losing keys, and not cleaning the bathtub regularly. One trait that I truly think has to do with age, or at least with the experience of age, is not reading to completion books that fail to hold my attention. I used to feel that I had to finish every book I started. I believed the author had done me the tremendous favor of writing this book and I was being rude or disrespectful if I didn’t read to the last paragraph. As a writer, I now feel that the author has to deserve the reader’s attention and I work hard in my writing to do just that. I am also aware with encroaching mortality that there are more good books to be read than I have time left to read them. So, if a book doesn’t catch me and hold me by about the third chapter, it goes into the pile for Goodwill. Happily, I feel no guilt whatever about this new freedom to read what I choose for as long as I choose.
I recently had the delightful experience of staying up until midnight to finish reading a book that not only caught my attention and held it, but that I have dreamed about and thought about in the days since. The book is The Lighthouse Road by Peter Geye. It is set in northern Minnesota, on Lake Superior. It is described on the back cover as: “A generational immigrant saga of logging camps, desperate winters, whiskey smuggling, heartache, boat building, and dangerous love.” That doesn’t cover the half of it. The sense of place is first, last and always in this book. The richness of his vocabulary for describing this bleak, dangerous place is amazing. I was sent to my dictionary at times, and I appreciate that very much. Reading should be a learning experience as well as an emotional one. What pulled me along, and kept me awake to through hours of reading, were the characters. These are not heroic figures by any stretch, but people caught at the edge of their goodness and the limit of their strength. They are characters I came to care about and champion, or to despise but desire to understand.
Carve out some time for yourself to savor The Lighthouse Road. You will be able to stay awake, I promise.
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