Read Sixteenth on July 7, 2012.
The funny part about this is that in my last post I said that I envied those people who could spend all of their free time reading. I posted that this morning.
So I read this in less than a day. But it's a pretty short book and I had nothing else to do. So don't give me too much credit.
I've been wanting to read this for a long time. I read it today because it was picked by a handy little site that generates a random number that I found a couple of books ago. Every time I use it I pray that it doesn't pick "The Complete Works of Shakespeare," 'cause that's a heck of a lot of reading. But the Book Gods feel like being nice to me today, I guess.
As mentioned above, I finished reading my most recent book last night, which was Persuasion by Jane Austen. It definitely is strange to switch from a classic to a modern book. The premise in Persuasion was so generic. It was about a high-class girl in 19th Century England finding love. Not incredibly original. (By no means am I saying the book wasn't good. But reading the blurb about it on the inside cover just doesn't strike you as particularly interesting.) This one, being a more modern book, definitely makes you think, "Oh, wow! That sounds like a fun read! I should be disappointed if I never get to read this!" Maybe classic writers just never thought about things like an old, experienced widower's experiences in heaven. Or maybe today's society is more open and nurturing to creativity and originality than two hundred years ago. Whatever the reason, I am kind of favoring modern literature at the moment. (Let me amend that: I am favoring good modern literature. Twilight bites.)
Anyways, this was a really good book. The concept of heaven is really fascinating to me. In this setting, heaven is where a deceased person goes to reflect on his/her life and to discover "why [he/she] lived and what [he/she] lived for." The protagonist, a man named Eddie, had little insight to these things. To him, and probably to anyone who looks at his life at a glance, would say that he led a dull life of no meaning and/or impact on the lives of others. The lessons he learns through the five people he meets in heaven makes him see otherwise. I generally judge the books I read on profundity. The last quote in the book definitely made me think: "...each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one." Pretty powerful stuff, right there.
I have often remarked that American literature just sucks. Almost every book on the list is written by an English person. This book gives me hope for America. Very small hope...but hope nonetheless.
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