Random Musings

I’ve been dying to re-read A Room With a View lately. Unfortunately, I don’t have the book with me, and the one copy that I know of in college I can’t borrow, for various silly reasons. Anyways, so it suddenly struck me that Project Gutenburg would have the book, since it’s out of copyright.

I was right, they did have a freely downloadable version. Now I don’t like reading books on my computer. Sitting in front of a screen just does not compare to the visceral experience of curling up in bed with a nice book and something to munch on, late at night. But still, beggars choosers and all that, and I did really really want to read it, so what the heck, right?

One-thirds of the way through it so far, and I’ve paused to write this entry. This is a book that you must read. There is something about it that is just beautiful. The first bit, in Italy, is like a river meandering through a spring meadow. It’s slow, and has birds flitting about, and lazy bees humming just at the threshold of your hearing. The smell of fresh cut grass rises up.. difficult to explain, but that’s what I feel like when I read this.

Books do that. They transport me away from my mundane existance to places of beauty and magic. Places of mystery, and suspense, and beautiful maidens. Where you never know what’s around the next corner, unless the book is an old friend, dog-eared and time worn, but which is always welcoming. I don’t understand reading a book only once. The only books I’ve read once are the ones that I don’t like. Books I like I read over and over, at suitable intervals. When I remember only the broad strokes of the book, and not the subtle brushwork, I like to take it off the shelf and go through it again, safe in the knowledge that I not going to meet any unpleasant memories.

Another book I love with all my heart and soul is The Pickwick Papers. Sam Weller is one of my all-time favorite characters, and Snodgrass, Tupam and Winkle are perfectly suited to be admirers of that great man, Mr. Pickwick himself. The variety of characters and situations, the bittersweet nature of the book, and it’s insightful glances into the nature of human existance mark it as a true classic. And to imagine that Dickens wrote this in his early twenties.. just about as old as I am today!

Oh well, I just felt transported by A Room With a View, and I wanted to share the feeling with someone, even someone as ephemeral as you. Thanks.