Dilemma

I'm thinking of starting another category over there on the sidebar of this blog entitled Abandoned. I'm really having a hard time finishing or even bringing myself to pick up The Virgin in the Garden. This is surprising to me because I was such a huge fan of A. S. Byatt's Possession. My hardcover copy was loaned to someone whom I considered a very, very good friend at the time. I never saw it again. That ended my stint as lending librarian. Now when I hand out books, I do not expect them back, which informs my decision to hand them out in the first place.

A few years back it dawned on me that life is too short to read bad books. In no way can The Virgin in the Garden be construed as a bad book. It was, however, written in the 70's -- not in my estimation a great time for British literature -- and is "artistic" in that pompous, purposely difficult way that things were esteemed "brilliant" back in that decade.

So the dilemma is this: is life also too short to read great books that are boring? I'm thinking the answer is yes because life doesn't incrementally increase by the length of time it takes to complete reading something that's good for you just because it's good for you. It's sort of like eating mushroom and barley meatless-loaf. Just because it won't clog your arteries doesn't mean one should endure an entire lifetime of salubrious dieting that will tack on three extra years at best, does it? I mean, who wants to endure three additional years of mushroom and barley meatless-loaf? Especially when it's swimming in a puddle of onion and yeast extract gravy.

I suppose this means that I consider The Virgin in the Garden to be the literary equivalent of 1970's health food.

Gratuitous Lunarscope for March 7:
Moon enters Scorpio
Tonight is a good time to dance the Naked Hokey Pokey with someone you love; even better to do so with someone you Lust.