The Shallow Shoals of Youth

At some time, while wading in the shallow shoals of youth, I obtained the advice to keep three books "running" at all time. No more, no less. I don't recall the source of that advice, though it does sound like something George G. would say.

He was the one who advised that to really learn by reading, be it a book, a list, or recipe; it must be read three times, preferablly once out loud. As more is understood about how the human brain learns, the truth of the last advice is being proven.

But, the three books are the focus of this comment.

Until I finished the Evanovich book, I did have three books running. Now I need another. The three books, to delve further into the mechanics of the advice, should be of three differnt types. One should be for your general improvement, one should be for entertainment and the other should be a book you wouldn't normally read.



The book for improvement is the biography of Mr. Franklin. The book for entertainment is the Ten Big Ones, the Evanovich book. (see blog below...)



The book I wouldn't normally read is called Yellow Dog, a Novel. It is written by Martin Amis. It is painful to read. The style is fractured, London-hip and full of inuendos and sideways glances only a Londoner would fully appreciate.

As a New Yorker, I am sure many such books have been written about New York, even Manhattan that a ploughman from Yorkshire would find incomprehensible. Therefore, it is irresponsible of me to say this is a poorly written book. It's just a book the topic and style of which are alien to me. Though most of the words can be found in our common dictionaries, the order in which they have been placed, and the objects to which they refer can give me eye strain and vertigo simultaneously.

The point here is the number of books and not the books themselves, The book for entertainment is a book that can be read just about anywhere, by the pool, at breakfast, sitting wherever you sit to wait for whatever it is worth waiting.

The book for your improvement should be given one or at most, two solid comfortable places to read. In the case of Ben, it is the couch by the east bay window in the living room. People should know that when you are sitting in this place reading, it is not a place where you should be disturbed for trivial matters. It is a place where, if home alone, you would let the phone ring.

The third book has a very specific place in which to be read. It is the bathroom, on the loo, on the john, crapper, comode, toilet, etc. A place from which you cannot escape. The positive side is that the length of reading time is shortened. Assuming your bowels don't cause you to spend endless hours indisposed. It took me a month to finish Yellow Dog. It took me two days, two work days, to read Ten Big Ones. Ben, I read a chapter at a time.

When the advice mentioned in the first paragraph was given, the Internet, along with it's freedom to publish and freedom to research, did not exist. I look at the Internet as a fourth book. The fourth book can be used to compliment the other three. It can be used to find out about the author, the publisher, the subjects and topics of the books themselves. It broadens the experience and numbs the mind simultaneously. Much like this beginning of the Twenty First Century is doing to me.

=30=