No more sparklers. Bummer.

No more sparklers, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I'm trying to read more books - it's easier for me on the weekends to carry a book around while chasing Brenden than try and use the computer. I realized recently that I had basically quit reading for pleasure around 10 years ago and I miss books. On her last visit here Nancy brought me some books which I'm working through, and I'm also trying to read some classics simply because I'm appalled that I've never read them.

I finished Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms Sunday and while I admire the way the man wrote - he never wasted a word, ever! - I find him a total downer. Read it because it is a classic, but have something by Terry Pratchett nearby for afterwards so you can shake the gloom out pronto.

When I'm trying to judge something, I go by the old standard of what was the author /director /whatever trying to say, and how well did he /she /it achieve it? But I also have to add in something I learned from Ayn Rand: what is the sense of life in the work? I think I once mentioned on this blog that I'd rather watch any given episode of McGyver than sit through any of Stanley Kubrick's movies simply because of a more optimistic sense of life in the former despite the superior technical ability of the latter.

Look, I'm not saying every story has to have a happily ever after ending. I just prefer to read stories by people who cherish life and understand that no matter how bad it gets it's still a gift. I think that's the reason why Dan Simmons is my current favorite author: even though horribly bad crap happens to good people in his writing I still get a sense of optimism and hope by the end of his books (even if I'm crying me a river).