2 posts from 2008

Audio: Share a song with powerful lyrics.

Watching The Wheels

John Lennon

Watching the Wheels

John Lennon

 

People say I'm crazy doing what I'm doing,
Well they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin,
When I say that I'm o.k. they look at me kind of strange,
Surely your not happy now you no longer play the game,

People say I'm lazy dreaming my life away,
Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me,
When I tell that I'm doing Fine watching shadows on the wall,
Don't you miss the big time boy you're no longer on the ball?

I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round,
I really love to watch them roll,
No longer riding on the merry-go-round,
I just had to let it go,

People asking questions lost in confusion,
Well I tell them there's no problem,
Only solutions,
Well they shake their heads and they look at me as if I've lost my mind,
I tell them there's no hurry...
I'm just sitting here doing time,

I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round,
I really love to watch them roll,
No longer riding on the merry-go-round,
I just had to let it go.

Ha! Could I have picked more disparate books to read?

The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton is a book I've been trying to read for 10 years, literally. It is a fantastic book -- exciting, heartfelt, intelligent -- but there was something star-crossed about my relationship with this book. I first started reading it when I was pregnant with my son. I was loving the book, taking it everywhere with me, and somehow I left it at someone's house. When I attempted to retrieve it, my friend was already reading it and I agreed to leave it for a while. Needless to say, I never got it back. 6 months ago, there I was in a thrift store, perusing the used books, and I saw  copy of Lidie Newton on the rack for $2. Hooray! I took it home, ran a hot bath, and started reading. I forgot the book when I went to get my pajamas, and when I came back, my two new puppies had eaten the entire middle half of the book. :( So, flash forward to Christmas, when my daughter bought me a new copy of the book. And thankfully, I got to finish this one! And it's still in one piece!

Lidie Newton is the story of a woman who marries an abolitionist and moves to Kansas at the height of hostilities between the pro-slavery and abolitionist movements. Lidie Newton is a true historical fiction piece, but with a strong emphasis on the history. Set in Lawrence, KS, just before Quantrill's Raid, Lidie Newton features characters and places that are familiar to anyone familiar with Kansas history, but it's also a love story (of a sort) and an adventure story, featuring a strong female protagonist. Jane Smiley, the author, is a product of the renowed Iowa Writer's Workshop and the winner of the Pulitzer for A Thousand Acres, and she shows clearly her acumen in the midwest aesthetic. She gets the voices right, she gets the emotions right. This book, even though it's set 150 years in the past, feels as honest as any contemporary story. I couldn't recommend this book more!

 

Fight Club, written by Chuck Palahniuk, is another book I've been trying to read for a long long while. I think I can wholeheartedly attest that Palahniuk's books are the most often-thieved tomes in any college library, maybe any library. I've searched high and low for library copies of any of Palahniuk's books, and come up empty each time. Whenever I find them second-hand, since that's how I buy most of my books, I buy them. This year, also for Christmas, my son bought me my very own copy of  Fight Club, and it was well worth the wait. This book was familiar, as I have heard Chuck reading the short story that eventually became the novel, but of course, there was a lot more of it. Palahniuk's voice, as always, as I've come to expect, is fragmented, sarcastic, ironic, but always unforgettable. I find the more of Chuck I read, the more I want to read.

Although I liked Fight Club, I still have to count Diary as my favorite book of Palahniuk's. But that's like saying "Billy Budd" is my 2nd favorite Herman Melville :)