Not A Big Reader

I have lots of books. I was commenting yesterday, somewhere, that I went to a book sale and only bought one book. A rarity for me. But just because I have lots of books doesn't mean I do a commensurate amount of reading. Because I'm busy for one. Then half the time I'm depressed and/or worried, so I can't always concentrate. And I try to get eight hours sleep everyday, so that means there's not enough time in the day.

But anyway...

A guy asked me the other day, "What are you reading?" And I'm thinking I'm going to sound dumb, but I had to say, "I'm not reading anything." Because I read five to 10 pages of about everything and hardly ever get much farther.

But today I had the book I got yesterday, and I cracked it open and looked at it. The Complete Poems of Sir Walter Scott, I think it's called. It's one of those old editions of poems, the Cambridge edition of a poet's complete works, from around 1900. I have several of these, various poets, and couldn't remember if I had this one. I started reading "The Lady of the Lake" today, and am up in the second canto. Very interesting so far!

So if anyone asks what I'm reading -- and they hardly ever do -- that's what it is, Sir Walter Scott. Gotta get that "Sir" in there, I guess.

As for my new found discipline in not buying books to excess, I picked one up at Goodwill today -- something -- and then hesitated and put it back. So that was good.

Lincoln: Reading Is Fundamental

I think we all -- my immediate circle anyway -- have an image in our heads of Abraham Lincoln doing a lot of reading. Especially reading by the fireplace or with a candle, in a dark room with such a small flickering light that he can barely see by, but he keeps on reading.

For him, then, clearly reading was fundamental, as something to learn by as well as to kill time. And there's no evidence -- none -- that he was reading just to get free personal pan pizzas. But had he been reading to earn pizzas, he would have earned a great many, and subsequently been a very fat man.

But it'd be weird back then to be a big reader, because books weren't really that plentiful, or they were expensive to get. And being out in the sticks somewhere, they just didn't have them. So we have it so great and don't appreciate it.

According to a book I've been reading today, Herndon's Life of Lincoln, Lincoln concentrated on the Bible, Aesop's Fables, Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim's Progress, a History of the United States, and Weems' Life of Washington. (p. 74). And as to this Life of Washington, he borrowed it from a guy, but then they had cracks in their log cabin and it got water damaged when it rained and Lincoln had to work hard to pay the guy back 75 cents. The guy was very unforgiving (p. 74-75).

Lincoln didn't get much formal schooling. All total it was only about a year. But he educated himself by carrying books around and reading all the time he could. And he had a great memory of the things he read.

One friend Lincoln had, a younger boy -- Joseph C. Richardson -- reported that Lincoln had the best penmanship in their neighborhood. At Richardson's request, Lincoln wrote him a penmanship sample that touched on his love for books. (p. 75-76)

It said:

"Good boys who to their books apply
Will all be great men by and by."

(The book quotes are from "Herndon's Life of Lincoln," 1965 paperback in the Fawcett World Library.)