READING AS THERAPY

The following was chosen by one of our faithful readers as their favorite and is being repeated. New blogs will start up February 1, 2010.
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I am allowing myself more time to read novels than I have in the past. I believe it is great therapy to leave your life for a while and enter into a fictional world,making new friends and learning about the challenges of their lives.

One of my all time favorite writers is Pat Conroy--the Prince of a writer who wrote Prince of Tides, The Great Santini, Beach Music and recently, South of Broad. Whenever I read a Conroy book I realize what a wide divide exists between a great writer and one like me. Don't get me wrong, I like the way I write,but compared to him and others in his league I am playing Minor League ball and they are in the Majors.

He makes trhe words sound like a finely tuned chorus, harmonizing together in such a magical and powerful way that you are lifted off your chair and moved into a spellbinding  trance of disbelief that anyone could sound so smooth and rhythmic by using the printed word. Here is a randomly chosen sampling from the first page of South of Broad:

                      I carry the delicate porcelain beauty of Charlston like the hinged shell of some soft-tissued
                      mollusk. My soul is peninsula-shaped and sun-hardened and river swollen. The high tides of
                      the city flood my consciousness each day,subject to the whims and harmonies of full moons
                      rising out of the Atlantic. I grow calm when I see the ranks of palmetto trees pulling guard duty
                      on the banks of Colonial  Lake or hear the bells of St. Michael's calling cadence in the cicada-
                      filled trees along Meeting Street, Deep in my bones I knew early that I was one of those
                      incorrigible creatures known as Charlestonians.

See what I mean--definitely Major League. Me, a clutch singles hitter in the minors! But, hey we need those base hits from time to time.


Bye For Now,

Bill

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