Time flies

Has it really been more than a month since I posted? I've been busy reading, but don't seem to have much to show for it.

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte. It's been about 10 years since I read this book for the first time. I enjoyed it then, but only now do I realize how much I missed. I had only just started my quest to read the books that I should have read in my youth, so I just wasn't as good--that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Anyway, I missed (or didn't remember) how much of an independent thinker Jane was and how she differed so from the other women of her time. Was it the time spent at the Lowood School such that she missed learning how Victorian women were supposed to act? Or was it just part of her personality, as was clear in the early chapters when she still resided with the Reeds? One thing is clear that many women today could learn a thing or two from Jane. How many women, given the chance to travel and live as the kept woman of a rich man, would have gladly become his mistress? Heck, many women are willing to give it up for a whole lot less.

Okay, enough sermonizing, I enjoyed re-reading this book. Well-written--so descriptive that I could feel Jane's misery as she wandered around hungry and homeless after fleeing Rochester's house.

I'm glad I re-read it.


When the Game Was Ours, by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. I'm not sure why I selected this book--sports memoirs aren't my cup of tea, but I'm glad I did. I remember the NCAA Final between Michigan State and Indiana State. I remember many of the NBA Championship games between the Lakers and the Celtics. I remember the Magic/Bird rivalry. So it was fun to be reminded of those games.

But there was lots I didn't know (of course). That Bird and Magic both anticipated and wanted the match-ups, and that each haunted the dreams/nightmares of the other was a surprise. That they had actually been teammates on the World Invitational Team during college was interesting. How they ultimately became re-acquainted and sowed the seed for their friendship, during the shooting of a Converse commercial, was intriguing.

Of course, the book couldn't have been complete without a recount of Magic's HIV+ saga. Maybe the back-story has been available, but I didn't know it. It's easy to forget how much of a death sentence HIV+ status used to be. Twenty years ago, the only question for those with HIV was how long before, (as the Rent line goes) "the virus takes hold." The fear and the ignorance is a thing of the past, for the most part, at least in this country.

Any good book should inspire a desire to learn more or do something more. I'd like to go back and review some of those games from the Magic/Bird era. It was a different game then--one where the star players played for the benefit of the team rather than their stardom. When the game was theirs, it was a different game.

It was a book well worth my time.