Word After Word

I am recalcitrant. I’m an exception finder. For a long time, I wanted to be a lawyer.

There are two kinds of people who like to be right: those who can’t bear being wrong. And those who don’t mind being wrong, not one single bit.  I am in this latter camp.

Because I suffer from this syndrome–let’s just call it Difficulty–I sometimes willfully refuse to read a book every one says I must read. Like a five year old, I want to find my own way to books. Or just have M. tell me what to read.

Every one said I had to read People of the Book. I love Spain. I am fascinated with book history, faith, Jewish history, and the complicated politics of 1492. I am interested in Moorish architecture in Spain, and I love great rollicking novels that you can’t put down.  Every one said I had to read People of the Book. Every one.

So I refused.

Until this week, when a bad head cold has me stranded in my sweet little bed, with orange spice tea, my small red dog, and this amazing People of the Book. (Which I had confused all along with another book, one my students always want me to read, People of Paper or Paper People–something like that).

You must read this book. Unless you are Difficult. Then: don’t read it. It is too good. Just forget I even mentioned it.

Thanks, LJ, for the recommendation.  I’m getting in my tiny orange van now to go back home and savor the ending. Again. This book, by the way, would go really well with The Zoo Keeper’s Wife, another great book, by the stunning Diane Ackerman.

Related posts:

1. What Can’t be Learned from a Book
2. What We Say To Ourselves In Front of Other People and It’s Even Worse When No One Is Watching
3. People Magazine Article On Face Blindness
4. Dave Myers’ New Book: A Friendly Letter to Skeptics and Atheists: Musings on Why God Is Good and Faith Isn’t Evil (Hardcover)
5. People Are Going to Tell You What To Do