Friday, April 3, 2009

Reading

I love to read. Many different genres -- fiction, non-fiction, detective stories, mysteries, historical (or hysterical) fiction, or non-fiction, relationship stories (I'll explain shortly).

Any of you heard of Diana Gabaldon? She had been a university professor until she started writing, and somewhere buried on this computer, I have a lengthy description of her and her writings which I will post one of these days. She has a fantastic imagination, and quite a sense of humor. More to come, I promise.

At the moment, having finished Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth", I am now in the midst of his "WorldWithout End". The first is set in the 12th century, and the second 200 years later, same general setting. Whoooosh! Gripping stories!

Relationship stories -- have any of you read any of Barbara Delinsky? Her earliest stories were romance novels, and in my humble opinion, not very good. Then she switched her style and started writing about relationships among people. Many had to do with someone who was wronged, and how things were set to right. Then a year or two ago she had a story (I'll have to look up the title) about a woman who did wrong, and how things worked out.

And for today's humor, something out of the archives:

A young man was strolling along a California beach, when he accidentally kicked something. He bent down and picked a dirty, beaten lantern. When he rubbed it to clean it off, a genie came out of the lantern -- a very grumpy genie.

“Well, what do you want?” demanded the genie. “After thousands of years granting wishes, I’m trying to get some sleep! So you only get one wish. Hurry it up -- I want to get back to my nap!”

“Uh, uh,” the man stammered, “uh, build me a highway to Hawaii.”

“Do you have any idea what is involved in building a bridge to Hawaii? The logistics? The material? The manpower? Pick something else!”


“Oh, okay. Um, give me a minute to think.” A few moments later the young man said, “I’d like to understand women.”

“How many lanes do you want that highway?”

3 comments:

  1. I have one of Babara Delinsky's books but never finished it because it was so sad (and close to my heart). I'll have to go finish it and see if there is a happy ending!

    Have a great weekend!

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  2. Rachel Remen's "Kitchen Table Wisdom" and "My Grandfather's Blessings" are my favorites.

    On a totally different note, written by a guy who (truly!) ran away with the circus as a kid, "Winterdance" is by a guy who ran the Iditarod race. Worth the whole book to read his description of the ice-dancing buffaloes, three of them, taking turns backing up a slope and then racing onto a frozen lake, hitting it with their front legs splayed just so so they would twirl around and around on the ice. They'd stagger up, dizzy, get out of the way, and the next buffalo would back up...

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  3. I've never heard of Diana Gabaldon or Barbara Delinsky but I do recall enjoying Pillars of the Earth years ago. If you haven't already heard of Bill Bryson may I recommend "The Lost Continent." Given your sense of humor I'm sure you'll laugh! Just don't read it in public!

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