You May Be Wondering What I'm Reading Now

It's been nearly 3 weeks since I last posted anything here. I have been reading. I am reading. But nothing that necessitates writing a review. I had parathyroid surgery on Monday so a lot of my reading has been about other people's experiences with parathyroid disease and parathyroid surgery. It's not the most common condition around (although much more common than I'd imagined) so I really had to dig to find things to satisfy my desire to learn more. Based on some of what I read, I expected to dance out of the hospital, stop for lunch on the way home and by evening be living a more energetic, healthier life. It's now Thursday. I can't comfortable to sleep through the night, my throat hurts... and I'm waiting. Waiting to feel great. Waiting for my healthy life to start.

My concentration is probably even worse than it's been in previous weeks and months. (Better concentration is supposed to be a result of the surgery. I'll wait for that, too.) As a result, I'm reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain in fits and starts. It's my Books and Beer Club title for September. I know that I'd never read Huck Finn before. I tried to read it with a fifth grade student about 15 years ago but we were "too bored." I do believe that I read Tom Sawyer back in the day. The dialect isn't as difficult to read as I thought it would be. And when I get bogged down, I just skim. I think I'm getting a full enough idea of what the book is about. Here's another book where I think the discussion is going to really add to my experience with the novel. I can't say I am loving this book, but it is a classic and like many other classics I've read recently, I'm already really glad that I'm reading it.

Just yesterday, someone asked on our book club Facebook page which Huck Finn book are we supposed to be reading. That made me wonder if there were several different Huck Finn stories. I learned that there was a "sequel" called Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Among the Indians that Mark Twain started... and dropped... and over a hundred years later, that novel was completed by an Author named Lee Nelson. Apparently the writing is seamless and it's hard to tell where Twain left off and Nelson picked up. But that was the only other Huck Finn book that I could find.

Yes, there are several books with the name Huck Finn in them. But all those books are written by other authors and I imagine they are reviews of the original Mark Twain book.

During my searching, I found what I consider a great article about an updated edition of Huckleberry Finn. It's definitely worth a read. It ties in to the fact that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been a banned book. (Books and Beer Club always reads a banned book during September, Banned Books Month.)

I'm glad that I'm reading an "original" edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I think as long as we take the language into the context of the time period in which the story is set, we're okay. When I was teaching, whenever I was reading a novel aloud to the class... if the novel had bad language, I often had to consider how I was going to deal with that. I taught about Civil Rights and Social Injustice so the "n-word" is one that appeared in some of the books I wanted to read to my class. Rather than change the words, I'd dedicate a lesson prior to the start of reading the book to discuss that particular term, why it's not appropriate for any of us to use now but why it was written into the book and why the book needs to read as it was written. My colleagues and I would often discuss this particular "dilemma" but I don't think we ever came to an agreement on how it should be handled.

I'm 85% finished with the e-book and will certainly finish it over the weekend.

What will I read next? My community book club is reading A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. It was published in 2012 so we, as a club, didn't think it would be that difficult to find in the library. Of the many libraries I have online access to, only one library system has the e-book. When I got on the waitlist nearly 2 months ago, I was #32 on the list. I am now #16. Even though I really don't have time for audio books these days, I've requested the audiobook, but it's doubtful I'll get that in time. I'm also waitlisted for the print copy at our local library. I'm number 20 in that queue. I think I might need to come up with something else to read. I'm toying with the idea with picking up Outlander again. I left off last fall after completing the fifth book. It might be time to read book six, A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Yes... off to request that one!