What's it been? Two years? How was your pandemic? We survived well enough. Better than too many. I finished my book, 50,000 Bonghits, so I did something productive during my down time. At the beginning of this year I was actually disgusted by how little I read during the plague. So I tried to make a committment to get going. I also decided to make little book reports about the books I was reading - maybe to inspire my daughter by my actions. It might also be noted that as a result of my decision to publish my book with proper capitalization, that is how I will write going forward. I might even go back and change the other blog posts. Still trying to figure out if I want to refine and publish the bike riding project. Just pulled my bike out of storage after popping a disc at C7 and being out of comish for awhile so maybe do some more of that project. Writing helps me stay in a creative mode. I hope you enjoy reading it.
The Jungle Upton Sinclair/Kristina Gehrmann (1906/2019)
One of my resolutions this year is to read more. Can I read 100 books in a year? Didn't W do that while he was President? Clinton read like 300 one year, didn't he? My friend, bassist, Matt Pavolka, read like 800 books during the pandemic. Well, here's number 1 - one of my 11-year-old daughter's Xmas presents.
Lucy has always identified as a vegetarian. She just does not want to eat animals. I was a veg in my 20's in Cali and so was the wife back in the day, but we are so not now. This is all her own thing. And I am very proud of her.
Most of the books she reads, I also read, just to make sure she is not skimming and retaining what she reads. It gives us something to talk about, too, like a book club. I came across this graphic novel version of this book I read long ago that influenced me greatly and thought, considering Lu's veginess and her love of comix in general, it would be good for her to read. Her eyes were like saucers most of the time and she read it in a day. I had to field a couple of tough questions - What's a brothel? And why? Why was hard to explain. She was appropriately repulsed by it all. And the rest of the content she understood.
It's beautifully drawn and well, the story is timeless and powerful. And was so influential, it led to federal food safety laws. It's also a great introduction into the world of worker party politics for your budding socialist. Highly recommend this version for kids 10 and up - depending on the kid, of course. The stockyards are bloody but it's drawn in black and white, so not so gory. But definitely explicit descriptions of animal slaughter. The sexual exploitation is implied but crucial to the story.
Power to the people.