About 18 years ago I was at a conference (I think it was Congress '89 in Boston) and one of the speakers at a seminar mentioned a book called The Closing Of the American Mind by Allan Bloom. I thought
"sometime I want to read that book!" A few weeks ago on our way home from Virginia I bought it cheap at a yard sale and I was so excited that finally I was going to read it! Well I'm more than halfway through the book and I'm still hoping for a page, maybe even a paragraph that I CAN UNDERSTAND! Mr. Bloom has written the book assuming a person knows all about Socrates, Plato and all the other philosophers from long ago. And he uses BIG words and some words I can't even pronounce!!! But I will finish the book! BECAUSE I'M NOT A QUITTER! (is that with two t's or one?)...There's something in me that won't let me just put the book on the shelf and forget about it...I HAVE to finish it! Mmmm...maybe in my subconscious I'm hoping someone will ask me if I've ever read the book and I'll be able to say YES and THEN THEY'LL THINK I'M SO SMART and intellectual.....oh but then I'll have to cut the conversation short when they start using big words and ask me to expound on Socrates or one of his pals....Well I'm still gonna finish the book..the next chapter is called "The Sixties"..maybe I'll understand something there.
I must confess there was a recent book I DIDN'T finish! I was reading a book called Gettysburg and was halfway through when it was brought to my attention that the book was written AS IF the South won the Civil War! I thought something was funny when it seemed the battle of Gettysburg only took up half the book...Well I do like historical novels (i.e. books by Brock and Bodie Thoene)...but I don't like books that re-write history! Shame on you Newt Gingrich! So I felt I was completely within my rights in my mind to NOT finish that book and promptly return it to the library.
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