“Hugo Bust, Bingen am Rhein, 2015” (photo by m.a.h. hinton)
“If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads.” ~ François Mauriac
The winter that will not end continues plaguing us here in the North Country. Mounds of snow grow at the edges of driveways and along hidden curbs. The sun and lengthening days tell us it is springtime, the white piles tell us otherwise.
I took time out from my plan to read mainly women and/or people of color for my annual ritual of re-reading Hemingway’s “Big Two-Hearted River.” Something I have been doing for more than 30 years now.
Re-reading the story has me dreaming of fishing and spring as it always does. It also has me thinking about the whole process of re-reading beloved works, something I have rarely done in my life. But now I am wondering if I need to re-think that habit as well. It may be just what the doctor ordered.
The books that I have loved make a long list (Here is a partial list of 300). But it is a list that has grown less rapidly as the years have gone by. Maybe the reading restlessness I have been feeling for awhile now, the rushing from book to book and seldom finishing one, is not going to be solved by finding a new book, but by spending time with an old friend again.
So today (and regular readers of ClimbingSky know how often I change my plans) I am modifying things yet again. I will try alternating between reading works by women and/or people of color AND some old favorites. A dialectic dialog with myself if you will.
I will let you know know how it goes.