This Brick of a Book

December 27, 2018

The book I ordered for everyone just arrived.

I had this great idea to make a book group with my family and have our first meeting in March when my sons get back for spring break.  Mom can listen to it on Audible, so can anyone else who can't or doesn't feel like struggling through pages of print.

I''m fascinated by George Washington, so I got us the biography of Washington by Ron Chernow.  I knew it would be big but...um...wow.  It is a brick. With tiny print. I'll need more reader glasses placed strategically throughout the house.

And how do I get everyone to open this geode?

How do I ever get students to read on their own? Not easy, but grades can be great extrinsic motivation.  Grading my brothers might provide a laugh or two.  Four of the books have owners under the age of twenty-five who are all in school.  How do I make motivation outweigh the physical reality of the book itself?

Maybe I can start with a map of sorts:

1) Make sure you are in a great space. I stuck a pair of readers in my pencil cup and cleared a spot for the book next to my chair.

2) Pick up the book and open it. Sometimes the very beginning is a very good place to start. It's heavy.  You'll build some muscle.

3) It's ok to skim. This first chapter (15 pages long) gives us an idea of Washington's ancestry and a world where people died young, women married early, many children died, and social class was important. Mixed families were common, and people communicated by letters, which were saved.  Chernow describes the people and things that contributed to Washington and his trajectory, and it resonates strongly with another book I am reading, To Float in the Space Between by Terrance Hayes, where the second chapter begins with  quote from "The Molecular Biography of the Cell":

      ...what were the critical decisions that defined the trajectory of this life, and when were they         made? What was the contribution of neighbors, and what role was played by more distant influences? What was the role of chance?  (Hayes 3)

or, a few pages later

     I once thought a life was simply an accumulation of ideas, bu now I think it may simply be the accumulation of details...Somewhere between detail and idea is the truth (Hayes 13).

I think these 15 pages took me 45 minutes to read.  I am a slow reader.  

4) Break it down so you're not overwhelmed. I hope to read a chapter a day. 817 pp.   Most chapters are a little more or a little less than 15 pp. The timing should work out.  Of course, I don't plan on reading every single word.

Happy reading, everyone.