It’s a warm day, marked with the thick indolent air that characterizes the beginning of the balmy weather that will lead to summer in a few weeks. Ideally, on days like these, I like to turn off my phone, get myself something to drink, and nurse a book or three outside. Instead, I’m trapped in the house, tapping on the computer, and trying to finalize a financial analysis project for my accounting class.
It must be said: Writing essays for accounting is like dancing to no music. The reading material that I’ve had to slog through all week – benchmark comparisons, financial statements, company trends – has been completely joyless reading. Although I usually have no qualms about procrastinating, I’m determined to finish this project before the work week begins. Given the budget cuts that public schools have had to deal with, it is nearly a certainty that my job will likely provide me with even more joyless reading come Monday. Thanks, Governator, you’re a tool.
Having said that, working in education and working towards an education don’t always have to be stressful:
- My accounting class ends next Friday, which hopefully means that reading will revert to being a joyful activity. Thank God for accelerated courses. I hope that I will never have to take an accounting class ever again.
- My boss, D, is an English teacher and regularly brings in books that she thinks I might enjoy. Our tastes don’t always mesh (she loaned me her copy of On Chesil Beach, but I was underwhelmed; I loaned her my copy of An Invisible Sign of My Own, and she asked me if that’s what kids read nowadays), but it’s important to keep an open mind.
This week, D brought in three books that she says I must read:
Arthur & George by Julian Barnes, Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich, and
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
I am, of course, grateful to accept her recommendations, although, since D is around my mother’s age, some of the books she reads are decidedly more book-club-ready than my usual picks. No matter, though; regardless of how we feel about the books, the discussions we have about them are always lively. English teachers are awesome. I wish I could be one.
I suppose I should mention that I finally finished Alice McDermott’s That Night (which I aim to review in the coming week), but that hardly feels like an achievement, given the towering book pile (with D’s loaners, now three books higher) that I still have to go through. On that note, I must now (and with great reluctance) turn my attention back to my accounting class. But I keep wondering which book I should pick to read next. The book pile looks so inviting…
3 Comments
Apr 14, 2008 | Monday at 3:13 am
I have a book source like that– keeps me on a steady diet of books like The Dive from Clausen’s Pier. I’m a little glad of it, since I would not read those books on my own and it is sometimes good to get another person’s frame of reference.
The Bender sounds really interesting, so I’ll thank you for that as a tip, even if Sunday is already over.
Apr 14, 2008 | Monday at 4:48 am
For what it’s worth, I loved ‘Arthur and George’ but had real difficulty with ‘The History of Love’. I haven’t read ‘Love Medicine’ so can’t pass n any sage advice where that’s concerned. (I may well be older than either your boss or your mother!)
Apr 27, 2008 | Sunday at 7:16 pm
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