When I graduated from college in the Middle Ages or whenever that mythical time was, it took me several months to find a job. Those were months I finally got to read as much as I wanted. If I’d liked a novel by an author I studied, I’d buy every piece of his or her writing I could find and immerse myself in it.
John Updike was one of the Johns from that time in my life: Irving, Cheever, Steinbeck, Knowles. Though some of my classmates took issue with Updike’s portrayal of women, I always felt he was one of those writers who held up a mirror for his readers. If we didn’t like what we saw, the flaw wasn’t Updike’s, but perhaps a reflection a little too precise for comfort.
What I most particularly liked about Updike was that I never felt any story was over. Certainly with his characters Harry Angstrom in the Rabbit books and Henry Bech, there was more story there, and time taught me I could count on Updike to tell it. Even for those stories he didn’t continue into other novels, his characters stuck around, giving me plenty to think about.
Like his novels, his short stories were beautifully crafted, making them not only a pleasure to read but a joy to teach. Though John Updike died on Tuesday from lung cancer at age 76, his work will keep him alive for generations.
If I’m correct, Updike was one of the writers who refused to believe that books are dead. I mean actual physical books that you can buy in a bookstore or check out from a library or keep on a shelf in your home. That which you can hold in your hands and smell its ink and test its binding and run the tips of your fingers over its paper.
Maybe I’m a dinosaur, because I still want books in my life. I like knowing I can walk into my living room right now and take out Rabbit, Run or Rabbit is Rich, and for a time, I can not only lose myself in Updike’s world, I can also connect in a tangible way with the girl I was at twenty-two who first turned those pages.
I see how books on tape, online publishing, or electronic devices like Kindle can keep reading a part of people’s busy, busy lives. I can even envision myself using something like Kindle for books I want to read once and don’t want taking up my very limited shelf space.
But… Today’s the birthday of one of my favorite artists, Jackson Pollock. I’m lucky that I can find paintings of his online that I’ll never be able to see in person. I’m even luckier that I own a book full of photographs of his paintings, because I like that book’s heft and its vivid photography. But nothing can compare to actually standing in front of a Pollock painting, seeing it whole and large and vivid, or stepping close and honing in on a one-by-one-inch square if that’s what I want to do. Sharing the same space with that painting is the closest thing I’ll ever have to standing inside a barn and watching the artist reach for cans of paint, and with deliberation and intent, pour them on canvas.
Holding a book in my hand is not only like holding a piece of art, but it makes me feel more connected to those moments when keys clicked or pen scratched paper and the writer created. Those pages, that binding, that ink–they are the tangible connection between the writer and me, and I want that connection with my favorite books.
In honor of my book-loving, dinosaur ways, this little guy is ready to get all wound up and find for you, if you comment with a page number between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25, something to be happy about from this book:
Thanks to codyfrizbeejr for the dinosaur.
First!
Page 611, number 3 please
I have recently had to “purge” the book shelves, just so I can make room for the books I know have yet to come. But it’s getting harder and harder to decide which ones go to the garage. (I haven’t even come close to thinking where they will go from there.) I’ve become attached to the physicality of books as well. I know eventually they will be donated to out local library but it’s still painful.
I actually broke down and shopped for a Sony Reader this week. I have yet to push the button…I can’t bring myself to do it yet.
So a little happy today will be appreciated. Page 89 Number 12 please and thank you.
A few years ago, I finally purged. I had to, because there just wasn’t any more room in the house for books–and my ancient garage would never work for storage in this climate. I mostly got rid of non-fiction though.
Let me know if/when you get the Sony reader how you like it. I’m sort of watching Kindle for improvments to the technology and slashes to the price.
Speaking of reading, from one end of the journalism spectrum to another, your happiness today is:
“The National Observer and National Enquirer newspapers”
(Those would have to be archived National Observers, I suppose.)
Thanks for making me laugh with “First!” And in anticipation of warmer weather for you, today’s happiness is:
“a mockingbird singing on the chimney”
So need this one today…
How about pg. 38, number 5?
Whew, I’m glad you’re not one of my friends hit by the ice storms and blizzards. Otherwise, you’d be bitter, because today your happiness is:
“itching after playing in the snow”
I’m writing that page and number down and keeping it close because I do NOT want that one EVER!! LOL
I’m reading Updike’s Rabbit Run now; it’s one of the required text on my MFA reading list. We’ll have to discuss it the next time we see each other. (After we discuss the best way to extract a certain chandelier from a particular French Quarter hotel, natch.)
Page 115, # 8, if you please!
Even though I’m only “35” so it’s like I read it yesterday, I’d better brush up before our Updike chat. Maybe we could have that while eating:
“cheese and crackers served from atop an old potbellied stove”
How wonderfully random! I couldn’t be happier if it were “mashed potatoes served in a ten-gallon hat.” 🙂
What about fondue served on a slab of LiveJournal? ‘Cause I can make sure you get that, too.
Page 175 number 13(and if it is not something warm, lie to me. LOL)
You poor thing–and everyone hit by these winter storms.
“tennis whites”
Yay! Now you can envision hot tennis players. Sounds warm to me. =)
That’ll work. Now if I can only get my internet up at home. I can read and comment from here in the office but the post page doesn’t load right. I have pics of the ice from yesterday to post. Cable’s down,too, but I just popped in season two of QAF and Brian et al kept me company last night.
*sends some Florida weather up to Gary*
Thanks!
Reading your post about books/reading already made me happy. 🙂 But for some extra happy could I please have page 397 no 5?
PS have never read any Updike, but might just have to visit the library and see what they have.
Thanks!
And the book says:
“toasted chocolate color”
I know books survive, because Captain Picard had a copy of Homeric verse in his ready room on the Enterprise. I mean, that’s totally true, right?
Anyway, from one dinosaur to another, I’m all about the paper I can hold. Page 17, number 18, if you please.
Jeffrey R.
Yes, totally true. If you can’t believe in Captain Picard, who can you believe in?
And from the book:
“scrapbooking stores”
(They have whole STORES for scrapbooking? Crafty!)
474 and 7, please…
Happy Wednesday to you, Becky!
🙂
Thank you, and happy Wednesday back to you! From the book, the dinosaur has found:
“waking up with a cat”
if I had chosen that page/number, I hope you would have lied and said: “waking up with a dog.” 🙂
I’d have probably pretended that page was missing from the book and found some sunny answer for you.
No happiness needed for me today. With 6 to 8 inches of snow I’ve been spending the day under the covers tucked into bed. Tina looks good though. BTW A Coventry Wedding is available for the Kindle reader. Your words have entered the new era of reading.
I’m grateful for that. If people are going to have Kindle, I want them to read me there, too!
I do most of my reading while riding the Metro. And while very few unsavory character would stoop to steal a book, they might think the Kindle was some kind of iPhone or mini-computer.
314 and 6 🙂
And the book says:
“crumb crusts”
Hm, like an exotic, yummy cake. 🙂