Thursday, March 29, 2007

Musing on the News

A couple of news bits in the paper today caught my eye:

  • San Francisco's Board of Supervisors has voted to ban plastic bags from supermarkets. Woo hoo! A small step in the right direction toward ridding our world of this evil. Of course I don't know if that means they've banned just the handled plastic bags they use at the checkout or if that includes those fantastically frustrating produce bags.
  • Oprah has chosen Cormac McCarthy's book The Road for her latest book club selection. If you look at my list of current reading on the sidebar, you'll see it there. I'm trudging through it based off a recommendation on Marcus Goodyear's blog. I say "trudging" because it's depressing material - the world has been burnt to a crisp and this father and son are hiking south to the ocean in hopes of... well, I don't know what. There's not much to hope for in the world McCarthy paints. I can't read this at night; I have enough apocalyptic night terrors as it is already. And my daytime schedule allows for little reading. So it's slow going, but I hear it's worth it. If you can find a copy at your library after Oprah's announcement maybe check it out. And then check out something more upbeat like one of the Shopaholic books to go with it for balance.

3 musings:

Anonymous said...

Oh no! You think it's depressing? Bleak, I'll admit. But the father's love and the son's devotion to being "the good guys" are so powerful. It is a reminder that the world can be burnt to a crisp, but God has given us something that nothing can destroy. If we want hope, if we want to glorify him, we have been made in his image to do it--no matter what our circumstances.

Gosh, just writing this post makes me want to read the book again. Am I just sick?

Lara said...

Mark - bleak is a much better word for it. I realize I need to press on in my reading to get far enough to see more of what you're talking about. It helps that the days are getting longer and my ability to renew has stopped with the 49 holds on the book at the library now. This weekend I plan to forge ahead. I'll comment further once I've finished it.

L.L. Barkat said...

I haven't been able to bring myself to read it. Some of the Amazon reviews suggest it is quite haunting in its nightmarish images. I'm fairly good with depressing stuff, but nightmarish images are hard to take in willingly.