In article
,
John Husvar wrote:

In article ,
Gunner wrote:

On Tue, 23 May 2006 00:17:23 -0700, Don Bruder
wrote:


Not bragging - simply presenting a data-point for comparison - but I
burn up the typical 300-ish page paperback in about 3-4 hours routinely,
and once went through Stephen King's "complete and uncut" version of The
Stand in less than 14 hours. I started re-reading Frank Herbert's "Dune"
series (Dune, Dune Messiah, Children Of Dune, and God Emperor of Dune)
last night. I finished Dune this morning, after about 4 hours of "sit
down and read" time. After about 2 hours or so of Dune Messiah, I'm a
bit less than 2/3 of the way through. If I go at my usual speed, I
expect to be finished with Children of Dune, and at least partway
through (if not done with) God Emperor of Dune before daylight on
Thursday.


Same here. The bitch of it is..you run out of book long before you
want to.

Yep. Serious PITA, haunting flea markets and garage sales for books you
haven't already read. Caught myself reading one of a friend's freakin'
bodice ripper books once. Fortunately, I stopped and ran away screaming
before the brain injury was permanent. I think. I hope.

Then again, I do read misc.survivalism daily at least -- and milk
cartons, cereal boxes, documents on peoples' desks from the wrong side,
missing child/dog/cat/guinea pig flyers, etc. etc. etc.

So I'm *NOT* the last omnivorous reader on the planet!

I'd be willing to bet that both of you have seen, and done your absolute
damnedest to avoid shedding a tear while saying "It's just not fair!",
over the "old series" Twilight Zone episode "Time Enough"?




SPOILER WARNING:


For those not familiar with it -

A young(er) Burgess Meredith is a mousey little bank-clerk type with a
tyrant wife, and double-coke-bottle-bottom glasses. He's an avid reader
- Everybody seems to hate himn for it. His wife destroys a book he's
reading. His boss bawls him out about reading on the job. He's always
being grumped at by somebody for snatching a little time for reading,
whether it be a newspaper, a paperback romance, the back of a cereal
box, the directions for some gizmo or other he'll never seen, let alone
put together or use, and so on.

One day, he wanders down to the basement vault for lunch with a
newspaper and a book. We see the headline of the paper, which reads
something like "Atomic tensions rising - world may be destroyed!", and
partway through lunch, a mighty shaking that heralds TEOTWAWKI happens.

He emerges from the vault to find the blasted ruins of the city, and no
people. After stumbling around in a semi-daze of shock for a while and
realizing he's probably the only living human in the city, if not the
world, he comes to the remains of a library. Starts hauling out stacks
of books - With a monologue about Hemingway, and Twain, and Melville and
Plato, and others, to the tune of "OK, I might be the last man on earth,
but I've still got my dear freinds, so I can be happy", ending (or
perhaps "running down") wth "And finally I've got time enough!"

Just then, a late bomb flashes in the distance, the ground shakes, and
he stumbles down the library steps. As he gets to his knees, we see his
glasses have come off. He gropes around, and so predictably, they're
broken - We get a view of what he sees when he puts them on - cracked
and crazed, a mess of out-of-focus bits and pieces, almost as if the
world is being seen through a kaleidescope - utterly impossible to read
through unless each letter is the size of a billboard, and maybe not
even then. A few moments of realization, and we fade to black on his
despairing wail of "Oh, it's so unfair! I finally had time enough..."

One of the absolute classics of the show, and right up there in my book
with "Flowers For Algernon" (Later turned into the play, then the movie
"Charly") for tales I love/hate.

Sadder still, to watch it die, than never to have known it...

--
Don Bruder - - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd for more info