Lost in a Good Book

Today is the day I am awarded, or have conferred upon me, my Master of Arts in Humanities! I have to tell you, it has been a long, hard two years, but I actually persevered and completed it.

Now remember, I do work in a hospital where people have “working degrees and certifications” – ones that they actually use (MD, CNA, CRNA, CRNA, CNOR, MBA, SPHR, etc.). Yesterday I was asked what this degree "means" and I answered, “It means I am very well read.”

And all those years of reading, with pen or pencil in hand, make one a bit incapable of reading for pleasure. Every book must be critiqued, salient passages underlined, symbolism explored, etc., etc., etc. What I have to do now is figure out which books I can now read for pleasure after all these years of reading for classes. I have a short list to which I retain the ability to expand or decrease at my leisure:

· The Magus, John Fowles (currently reading!!!)
· Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
· As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
· The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
· Appointment in Samarra, John O’Hara
· The Man Who Deciphered Linear B: The Story of Michael Ventris, Andrew Robinson
· At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O’Brien
· Ulysses, James Joyce
· The Consolation of Philosophy, Ancius Boethius
· The Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio
· Remembrance of Things Past, Volumes 1-3, Marcel Proust
· Clara: A Novel, Janice Galloway
· Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow (to reread – it’s been years)
· The Journals: Volume I: 1949-1965, John Fowles and Charles Drazin
· Justine, Lawrence Durrell
· The Waves, Virginia Woolf

Let me know if you think there are any books I’m missing that perhaps I should add – that would be greatly appreciated! I do not have an anticipated completion date, nor do I expect to read these books in any particular order, but I do expect to spend some leisure time lost in a good book!