The last time I was with my father's side of the family, my grandmother and I were recommending Agatha Christie to my cousin's 10 year old daughter -- she's a big reader, and that was the age when both of us (me and Grammy) had read her. Her mom was a little suspicious, because they are "grown-up" books, but we assured her it would be OK. Nothing like indoctrinating the next generation of mystery readers...

Last time I tried reading Gatsby, I was in eighth grade, in a school I hated, and reading that book just got to be a massive power struggle. I kind of like the serial approach. I kind of wish it was being done with a book that had originally been published serially, because I'd be kind of curious to see how it played out, being read that way, but Gatsby seems like a nice choice. I think I'll try to pick up a copy of the Times today.

It was while I was still in highschool, a private exchange. I lived with a family there. Everyone except the teachers and the nurses were employees of the railroad. It was an interesting time. The isolation was bizarre and the differences between us and the other kids were pretty jarring at times. We all got along, but this wasn't my life, so I still focused on doing my school work and what was gonna happen in three months when I went back. For most of the kids living in Cook, they didn't care about school and they had no real thoughts about the future. Boys assumed they'd start working for the railroad at 18 or so and girls assumed they marry and have kids.

Interesting. (Not surprised about the attitude of the other kids. A lot of the people Bec went to school with felt much the same way. I think many rural schools need a Dawn on staff.)

From the press release:

The Times is supporting each publication with a host of events including celebrity readings and panel discussions. The first reading will be at Borders with Sam Waterston and his daughter, Elisabeth, reading from passages of the Fitzgerald novel on Monday, July 12, at 6 p.m. at the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle. Sam Waterston portrayed Nick Carraway in the movie version of "The Great Gatsby."

I can read in the car as long as there aren't any buildings or trees close enough to cast shadows across the page when it's bright out. Not much gives me motion sickness, but constantly shifting shadows across a page of text does, big time.

I'm probably not the only one here who can't resist cracking a book open at a red light on the way home from the bookstore or library, huh?

Heh. I had a similar experience: my mother was bragging to her uncle that I was already reading at age 3. He figured I'd probably just memorized the stories they'd read to me hundreds of times, so he sat me down with the newspaper and asked me to read it to him. So I did.

My grandmother found me laboriously sounding out the names of dinosaurs in her coffee table book, Marvels and Mysteries of the World Around Us, when I was barely 4. She told my parents I could read. They didn't believe her until they tested me on a book I'd never seen before.

Oh. Dear. God.

And I hate listening to books, too. It's too slow. But I'd totally be there for that one.

I'm probably not the only one here who can't resist cracking a book open at a red light on the way home from the bookstore or library, huh?

People don't keep a book in their car specifically for that purpose?

I started reading around 3 or so, but I couldn't sound out words. I could only read words I'd seen before, but once I knew a word, I knew it, so I could read pretty advanced books, and just occaisionally have to ask someone what a word was. It took me until I was 10 or so to really get the hang of the whole "letters make sounds, and sounds make words" concept. I just knew what each whole word looked like -- I couldn't split it into letters.

The first reading will be at Borders with Sam Waterston and his daughter, Elisabeth, reading from passages of the Fitzgerald novel on Monday, July 12, at 6 p.m. at the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle.

Dude. I'm totally going to that.

They're both in the Shakespeare in the Park Much Ado this year, aren't they?