Reading and the Time

He's reading a little better but the Complete and Total Loser is still dozens of pages from finishing The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, a novel he began reading months ago. That's his "home book." When he visits his father in the suburbs he reads the David McCullough biography on John Adams. It was the last book his mother read. It's a nice escape of sorts, a trip to a past in which there were smart people in times that were simpler in some ways.

Meanwhile, he wants to get one of the cheap new Kindles, the one with a touch screen. Stupid, and the Loser doesn't need it; he has a backlog of books to read which, if stacked, would be taller than he is, which is five nine on his good leg. He knows it would be stupid to spend over $100 to satisfy his gadget curiosity and that if he resists the impulse it will fade in a week or two.

A Web site he likes tells the time. It's clear, pared down and it appears huge on his computer screen. He also likes the time site his government has, though it seems to make his browser crash. But it has a small world map with a parabolic representation of where the sun is shining and where it is dark that will explain more about the seasons and movement of the Earth than many books. If you look at it long enough, you can see the world turn.