Why am I Still Reading "Special Topics....
in Calamity Physics"?
I ask myself on occasion, why? And I know it's because of my particular problem with book reading, that once I start reading a book I have to finish it (the sole exception being Joyce's "Ulysses", which I've started reading five times and have never managed to finish). This leads me to read books that I know the mystery ending to by the third chapter or books with extremely cliched story lines. I lament, Why oh why? but always continue reading and so I now find myself in a unique situation that usually only comes to me when I am watching a particularly uninteresting CSI. Namely, I don't care what happens. Reading "Special Topics in Calamity Physics", which is filled with a great deal of anecdotal information, I find myself not caring about the characters, the plot, the endless book references, and smart-alecky very-nearly-inside academia jokes. Even in the references that don't fly over my head I find no relief. At the greatest extent of my interest, a sorry "oh" will escape from my lips. And yet I trudge on, and will until the end of this 514 page book. Currently at page 116, I see no end in sight, but if I read the "Decameron" and "War and Peace", well then, By Jove, I will finish this little tome!!
I ask myself on occasion, why? And I know it's because of my particular problem with book reading, that once I start reading a book I have to finish it (the sole exception being Joyce's "Ulysses", which I've started reading five times and have never managed to finish). This leads me to read books that I know the mystery ending to by the third chapter or books with extremely cliched story lines. I lament, Why oh why? but always continue reading and so I now find myself in a unique situation that usually only comes to me when I am watching a particularly uninteresting CSI. Namely, I don't care what happens. Reading "Special Topics in Calamity Physics", which is filled with a great deal of anecdotal information, I find myself not caring about the characters, the plot, the endless book references, and smart-alecky very-nearly-inside academia jokes. Even in the references that don't fly over my head I find no relief. At the greatest extent of my interest, a sorry "oh" will escape from my lips. And yet I trudge on, and will until the end of this 514 page book. Currently at page 116, I see no end in sight, but if I read the "Decameron" and "War and Peace", well then, By Jove, I will finish this little tome!!
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