I WISH I HAD THE TIME . . . BUT AT LEAST, SOMEBODY IS READING . . .

From Lori's Picture Collection

At the moment, the fellas in my life, at least the ones with whom I currently reside, are out reading me. The tyke you see in the picture above is now quite a few years older. From the looks of things, he's even recently acquired his very first zit. Poor baby (smile).

But between his Sports Illustrated For Kids and college basketball mags, the young'un has been reading The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and poetry by Claude McKay from The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. No, none of the aforementioned is required reading for a class or an assignment from his dear old mother (smile). Actually, I told him The Three Musketeers might prove a bit challenging for him and recently he agreed. But to his credit, he hasn't given up and tossed the book aside just yet. I, most certainly, would have at his age. The other book, The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader is something the boy's dad (the hubby) picked up for him last year at a Black Book store we visited on a spur of the moment trip to Durham. Now why the boy's sudden interest in Claude McKay's poetry is anybody's guess. Hey, he's just strange like that and he lucked up and gott nerds for parents, is what I figure.

For inspiration, the hubby is currently reading Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps To Living At Your Full Potential by the always smiling Joel Osteen, who I playfully refer to as the "Kool-Aid" man and for pure pleasure the hubby has been reading The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. The latter title is actually one I'd probably read if I had the time. One the book's inside flap, a Black Swan is described as "a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 911." Forgive me, but yes, that sort of thing really does speak to my inner nerd (LOL). But for now, I'll just content myself with listening and asking questions when the hubby comments on what he's read thus far.

If I were reading something other than the weekend edition of the local newspaper or a few pages from the latest Essence or Poet's & Writers Magazines, I'd probably be tackling Toni Morrison's Tar Baby, a hardback copy of which I recently picked up--though where I can't recall at the moment. It's one of the few older titles by Morrison that I haven't read. Also, on my list is I Got Thunder: Black Women Songwriters On Their Craft edited by LaSonda Katrice Barnett, a book the hubby got me at my request this past Christmas. Arnold Rampersad's Biography of Ralph Ellison, a book I bought at the Black Store we visited in Durham, is another title I would be reading had I the time.

So what about you? What are you reading? Or what would you be reading if you had the time? Also, if you dare, what type of literature are the folks in your house into these days?