Peneflix MOVIE REVIEWS BY PENEFLIX
In yesterday’s Chicago Tribune Steve Chapman wrote a column entitled “In Praise of Fat Books and Slow Reading”. What joy, recognizing that indeed “no man is an island”; there is always someone in the vast “beyond” who shares one’s weird proclivities; books over a thousand pages, weighing pounds, not ounces; Mr. Chapman spoke to my literary gene, “If you really like a book, why would you want it to be shorter?”
Being a shy, reclusive child I found the greatest companionship in the written word; books starve off loneliness, heartache, boredom; they feed the soul with unimaginable adventures, rip the blinders off myopic prejudices, open the portals of kings, martyrs, murderers, deviates, politicians, artists ( I love it all, the plebeian and the divine); never leaving the confines of your own village, domicile, the world is splayed on a page, restricted boundaries demolished; demanding, desiring to be voraciously devoured.
Like Mr. Chapman I dread the finale of an illustrious book and terrified that the next one cannot compete; unlike Steve, I consume at an unhealthy rate, one after another, oftentimes reading, gobbling three or four simultaneously, depending on my fatigue level. Maybe like Keats, I have fears that I may cease to be, before my brain has gleaned my teaming hunger, manic quest for the heart and life that beats between the bindings.
Also, never without a book I can read anywhere: riding backwards on a speeding train, car, plane, bus, I have yet to encounter a vehicle that can stump or cripple my need; in a dentist chair, recovering from surgery, my gurney is a library; even in movie houses, the kindle fire brightens, lightens, perpetually vanquishing the ubiquitous, cloying “trailers”.
Steve Chapman was facetious about his “inadequate capacity for retention”; even those with eidetic memories cannot house the millions of words, premises, that have cascaded before their eyes, but assuredly many of those formidable words, thoughts are indissoluble and reside comfortably and at peace in the cherished closets of their minds.
Mr. Chapman concludes by stating: “The best books are like the best romances: They last as long as you live.” I am in absolute concurrence.
For Now………….Peneflix
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It is amazing how you find the time for so many books and films. I guess you always find time for things you love. I can’t picture you as a shy child.
I too find the concept of you as a shy child less than believable . . .
And as one who has been overburdened by reading student papers all my life, I look forward to immersing myself in real books should I ever decide to retire!
TOOK A LOT OF EFFORT TO OVERCOME! XO P.
Took some work getting over it. P.
CAME OUT OF MY SHELL AROUND 13 YEARS OLD; AND NEVER LOOKED BACK! XO P.
What a wonderful words to read about the wonder of words. From our snow globe, a perfect place and time for curling up and rereading Bleak House.
I feel exactly the same.
Dear Penelope:
I seem to find more hours in the day to read than go to the movies … or even to art exhibits.
Things you can do at midnight (or later), five in the morning (or earlier), around the house dressed in whatever you can find.
A such a wealth of stories and adventures that take you around the world, into past or future times, into the homes and lives of the famous and the fictitious.
I should have guessed that you have this amazing other life … not the movies, not art exhibits or lectures … but the endless joy and anticipation of endless reading.
Best,
Joan
YOU TOUCHED MY SPIRIT WITH THIS ELOQUENT RESPONSE. THANK YOU, P.
JOAN, YOU TOUCHED MY SPIRIT WITH THIS ELOQUENT RESPONSE. THANK YOU, P.