‘I'd read it already, but I wanted to read certain parts over again.’

               ― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

 

In 2016 Viet Thanh Nguyen won the Pulitzer Prize for his great-I-thought novel The Sympathizer about the war and politics in Vietnam and the life afterwards here in the U.S. in California. Nguyen and his family escaped when he was 4. This CBS video that aired a couple days ago has him talking about his parents’ determined/difficult efforts to establish a life in the states. 

https://apple.news/AVuLhoZbKTB60awh1nwNmcQ

 

The ‘Times’ picks the 10 best books of the year. One could argue over the choices like last week’s NBA draft choices. But if you scroll down through the picks, you’ll see some gems:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/23/books/review/best-books.html?referringSource=articleShare

I’M ONLY 50 PAGES IN but it’s better than I thought it would be and I thought it would be very good. It’s him. A private guy in a public life. His thoughts about that are clean and honest.

This came in the mail this afternoon. I ordered it from the bookstore I go to here. It’s quite a presence in your hand. 751 pages. He wouldn’t make it burdensome though. He knew his voice could keep it in the air. Here’s the first paragraph of the preface: 

‘The problem in our country isn't with books being banned, but with people no longer reading. You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.’
               ― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

THEY SAY THAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN READING MORE in these past months. 35% I’ve seen quoted. That would make sense. Imagine the people though, young people and older people, who can’t read well enough to get deep time with a book or a magazine or something that would mean something to them online. The TV would be going all day, and so would other screens with their quick restless information. Hour after hour. Since March. Or since always. We have failed in giving many citizens the most valuable tool.