Trying to finish

So I am not 1/2 way through THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO by Alexander Dumas. I had put it aside and had not read my requisite 4 chapters/day like I had previously stated that I would do while reading the other two books. I am on page 235 and there are 1179 pages in this book. While I was reading a young man who was incorrectly incarcerated at the age of 19 has grown to be a 33 year old. He made a friend in prison who tells him about a treasure on the Island of Monte Cristo. In order, to have a story something spectacular has to happen, because someone who is doomed to spend his life in prison does not fill 1179 pages.  There is an escape, a rescue and a plan hatched to find the people who set him up.

That is all I can say right now, except that it goes into great detail, so that you truly see what our main character is seeing and feeling. The characters so far are Edmund, the wronged, Mercedes his love, his father, the three men who set him up, Villefort the man who put him away, and the Abbe Faria who is incarcerated with him. I will let you know when I get to the 1/2 way mark and if I can tell you anymore about the situation.

Book Review: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I have finally finished ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE, by Robert Pirsig. This book was published first published April, 1974 by William Morrow publishing. This was after several publishing houses had turned Robert Pirsig down. My copy was printed by Bantam books in 1984. There is an afterword in the back by Robert Pirsig written in 1984 for the book. I am sorry that his son Chris died, especially in such brutal circumstances.
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I have found this book in both the fiction and non-fiction sections of the library and book stores. To me it is non-fiction, I had a small debate about this recently at a book club meeting. The afterword has helped me realize that I was correct in that it is not fiction. This is a story about a journey, in which there is self-discovery and the understanding of the thoughts that exist in your mind. I have taken many a long trip, by myself , in a car, where I find my mind drifting into thoughts about existence, my life, my philosophies and how they relate to others. I have many days when I have a hard time relating to my children. My husband and I would take drives with our children and commence what we called the "car talk", this was our way of having a captive audience, trying to find out what was in their heads at the moment or trying to impart our wisdom.

We spend a lot of time in the narrators head, as he remembers Phaedrus and his connection to this 'ghost.' The ghost that was himself, which happened after his electroshock therapy. His thoughts and ideas wiped clean, but still in his mind. The journey on the bike and the maintenance of the bike, take us through thoughts on Quality. What it means and how to we try and fail at achieving it, mainly by letting ourselves get in our own way.

There were times I agreed and times I was confused by what the author was trying to impart. I did have to reread several passages, but when you put a book down for a couple of days, sometimes it is best to reread some pages. I love the journey that the father and son took, the father retracing his history, but not sure how to relate to his son, who was part of that history.

There is more to this book than I could possibly write here, but once I finish the 100 I am suppose to read I am going to read Pirsig's second book called LILA, which has to do with morals.

Book Review: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

 THE BOYS IN THE BOAT by Daniel James Brown, published by Penquin Books copyright 2013. Finished this book on Sunday, just in time for my book club. I really enjoyed the book for several reasons; I really enjoy reading history, especially those set in the time period of the Great Depression and War World II. This is the second book that I have read dealing with members of the American Olympic team and there traveling to Germany. I am amazed that Hitler was able to hide his agenda so well from everyone. There is a statement in the book that the Americans make on returning from Germany that the author puts in the book "As for this man Hitler....Well, I believe we should all like to take him back to America with us and have him organize there just as he has done in Germany."(page 360) Of all the books I have read and the documentaries I have seen, the killing and imprisonment of people in their towns were just completely ignored.

The other reason is that I like books teach me about things that I know nothing about, especially sports. I have friends who have done crew. In fact, one of my friends in book club, did crew and she was impressed by the how well the author did with the details. Knowing that they won in the Olympics,, Daniel Brown still had me on the edge of my seat with his descriptions of the races. Especially, the races at  home, but more specifically the race in Germany. Very well written.

Then there is the life of Joe Rantz, who beyond all the hardships he endured he worked his way through life without bitterness. He may have had some self doubt but instead of saying 'Woe is me,' he did all that he could to survive. It was a different world, but leaving your 13 year old to fend for themselves, egad. Could you imagine what kind of news story we would have about this?

A great book, I would highly recommend it.

Midway ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE

I am drawn into this book and the philosophy found within its pages. Not all the philosophy for I found myself going along and then stumbling, thinking I was on board until that last section. I just finished a passage in page 189-190 of my book where he talks about the ego-climber versus the selfless climber and I am able to equate that to when I go hiking with my family. The ego-hiker to change the wording is interested in getting to the finish of the hike looking to see how fast they can go without taking in nature, and the selfless hiker I think wants to learn more about what he sees around him. Not try to get from point A to B without finding something in nature. I think my family is a combination of both, we start out as selfless hikers. We have brought books to identify plants, fungi and animals, cameras for documentation and we take our time, looking around. But by the end of the day, we have put our things away and work real hard to get back to the campground or car before the light fades among the trees. We have invited friends on our hikes but it becomes a race for them, they think a hike means to go as fast as you can to get to the end of the trail. They openly say "We beat you." We always say "We didn't know it was a race." It is especially bad for my kids who are torn between catching up with friends and hanging back with good ol' mom and dad.

I still have a bit to read but it is getting done, but maybe I want to be a selfless reader.

Timeline

I realized that it was June 6th and I have three books to finish before the end of June. I decided today to make a timeline for finishing these books. I know that I have to have the BOYS IN THE BOAT finished by June 22, so that means that if I read 1 chapter a day I will finish exactly on the 22. I think that I will read 1-2 chapters which will give me a little lead time, depends on the size of the chapters. I f I were to read two chapters I would finish in about 8.5 days. Now onto ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE, I have approximately 19 chapters left in this book, which means if I read two chapters a day I will be finished in 9-10 days, I could read 1 chapter each day and still hit my goal, I will strive for two, again it depends on the chapter lengths. Then we have the book that is bound to kill my eyes, but is a pleasant read, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, a 118 chapter book, well 119 there is an epilogue, to finish this book by the end of June, I will need to read at least 4 chapters a day. Luckily, they are short chapters, unluckily they are small words. I would hate to see this book in large print format, you would probably need three volumes and a wagon.
Goal:
BOYS IN A BOAT- 2 chapters/day
ZEN- 2 Chapters/day
MONTE CRISTO- 4 chapters/day

All I can say is I hope my eyeballs are up to it, and it is a pleasant experience. Happy Reading

Struggling

So I thought that I would have ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE, done by now, but what I did not realize is that there are some heavy duty explanations for life and how we regard life. There is a lot of talk about classic versus romantic philosophy, scientific method and get tied in with technology and motorcycle maintenance, so I have become bogged down. I need to be thoroughly cognizant in order to read this book. It is not a bedtime read, unless you want your mind to drift. So, my bedtime reading is now the COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, by Dumas. Again it is a large book, but it is broken down into small chapters so I have decided to try to read three chapters a night of this book. I also need to start my book club book, THE BOYS IN THE BOAT.
My goal for all three-end of June. Wish me luck.