Thursday, May 03, 2007

The Greatest Book In The World...

Outside of work I would say I probably read as much from paper as I do from cathode ray nipple (Or I guess the liquid crystal nipple nowadays). But, it's actually true. Once you add in work to the mix it's no contest, I spend most of my time hammering away on a keyboard staring into a monitor.

It all started about a year ago when I started working this new job. Back, before, in the dark place - the horrible place - the evil place - I spent my lunch hours curled up in the fetal position under my desk in my cubicle or standing on the sidewalk sucking down cigarettes. We only got 30 minutes for lunch. Then, I got laid off. Lucky me, actually.

Now I work in a much higher grade office. We get an hour for lunch and there are no mean-hearted stubborn ignorant people looking over my shoulder to see how many times I pee during the course of a day. I get my work done, I get more work done than most of my peers, I can do pretty much what I like...which I like.

So, after a couple of weeks of working here I found myself with about 40 minutes of my lunch break un-used. I would scurry off and wolf down my lunch, power smoke a few cigarettes and find myself with free time on my hands.

Being a father of two little boys, this is a rare occurrence. My first thought was to nap, but I find it hard to restart the dynamo for an hour or two after I wake up. So, one day I swung into a book store nearby and picked up a couple of books.

I was an avid reader during jr. high, high school and college. I even did quite a bit of reading early in my career but it tapered off as I took more and more challenging positions. Since the kids came my reading has pretty much consisted of reading a few Dilbert or Bloom County comic strips from big compendium books while I pooped.

Now I find myself back in a position where I can read 40-50 minutes every day. At least! I've even gotten so engrossed in some books that they follow me home and climb into bed with me. It's been a joy to rediscover reading. There's a nice little park just a block away from my office and I mosey over there with my lunch. I'll sit, read, smoke and just relax.

I started off catching up on some missed sci-fi classics. I went out and found the "Top 25 Sci-Fi Classics" list somewhere and made sure I had read all, or most of them. Then I went on an Orson Scott Card bender following through all the Ender books, and a couple of his other series which were pretty good. I started digging into some of the Cabal of Masonry books (The Widow's Son and a few others...).

I'd read quite a bit of cyberpunk stuff in my day, a lot of it so cheesy that the major pizza chains can't afford to use it as "cheese" on their "pizza". One day whilst wandering through the used book shop near my office I came across Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. It had been on my list of things to read for a long time, I'd read it was one of the best cyberpunk stories of all time.

It was pretty damned good. The first few chapters just totally blew me away. Stephenson had the balls to name his lead character Hiro Protagonist of all things, it was a wonderful, sweeping adventure.

I'd picked Snow Crash up with a few other books that I found on a list of "Bad Movie, Great Book" (The Postman, Starship Troopers and the like) so it took me a while to get around to digging into some more Stephenson books.

When I went up to the counter with Zodiac and Cryptonomicon and set them on the counter I felt like I was being sized up by the Book Store Guy. Funny thing about Book Store Guys (and Gals) - It must be a very tedious job, selling bad books to stupid people all day, but when someone walks up and lays something on the counter that you actually respect and enjoy it's probably a good feeling.

This particular Book Store Guy had been impressed with my delvings into the "Post Apocalyptic Fiction" and had even pointed out a few books I'd enjoyed (Canticle for Leibowitz and a few others) when he saw some I'd chosen myself. "There's some pretty hard core math in this one..." he said as he scanned in the bar code on Cryptonomicon.

"Cool." I said...which appeared to be the right answer.

789 pages later I realize that I've been nothing but a hack geek poser for my entire life. I have no idea how I got to be who, where and how I am without having read this book. A lot happened during those years while I was raising my babies and reading Opus n' Oliver cartoons on the can. Some really, totally amazing stuff. Then I read Zodiac.

I now peer frequently over my shoulder wondering if this guy Neal has been following me around. It's almost creepy. But, the stories have been delightful, the characters compelling and the plots are an exciting ride on an out of control horse through the thickets of a very creative imagination. Thanks Neal!

I'm glad I've gotten back into reading. It's been a great pleasure. It's strengthened my resolve to continue spending time reading to my own kids, to help them discover the love of words, not just to hang on the bells, toots and whistles that come out of the liquid crystal nipples that seem to surround us in homes, schools and offices.

Okay, back to work (and Quicksilver, the first tome of the Baroque series...by Neal Stephenson).

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