[stylist] My reading list

Tue Aug 8 19:26:52 UTC 2017

Bill

When I started writing, I tried reading some of the classics.  I read "A Tale of Two Cities" (quite good), Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" (couldn't get into it at all), and "War and Peace" (I found very uneaven, better in the war scenes than in the peace scenes).

Anyway, reed on.

Shawn

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Bill Outman via stylist
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2017 3:15 PM
To: 'Writers' Division Mailing List' <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Bill Outman <woutman at earthlink.net>
Subject: [stylist] My reading list

I haven't been able to do as much on the writing front lately, but I have been making some progress on reading lately.  

First, let me share the list of books I either have completed reading or are in the process of reading since I got started using the BARD Mobile app on my iPhone, and then I'll give some explanation afterward.  In my list, * indicates I have finished reading the book for the first time.  

Digital NLS Books 

*"The Huntress" (biography of Alicia Patterson) 

*"The Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex: What You Must Know To Be Sexually Literate" (1990 edition) 

*"Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps and the Tenth Dimension", Michio Kaku 

*"Alice In Wonderland/Through The Looking-Glass,"Lewis Carroll 

*"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(w. explanatory notes & original manuscript material)", Mark Twain 

*"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", Mark Twain 

"Gone With The Wind", Margaret Mitchell 

"Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus", John Gray 

.         * indicates I have finished reading this book 

.         The first one on my list, The Huntress, was something I wasn't
interested in when I first got it, as it was something my local talking book library helped me get just to practice getting a book and navigating the app.  It turned out, however, to be of interest to me given my northern Illinois roots, given the fact the subject of the biography, Alicia Patterson, was part of the family that once owned the Chicago Tribune, so the story filled in more history of the area I didn't fully know.  

The Kinsey book on sexuality has been essential reading for me, as there are aspects of the issue of sexuality that I didn't learn in my youth, partially as it wasn't properly taught to me in the schools for blind, in part due to administration's belief I couldn't handle it and other improper attitude issues that existed that I could go into more detail about later if anyone is interested.  Had the issue been faced correctly in my teens, it would have saved a lot of trouble concerning how I deal with relationships, and I'd be in a better place in my life now, rather than being being in my early 50s and still feeling I've experienced some arrested development.  

Perhaps on a certain level there was also the assumption I already understood the sexual issue adequately and was merely misbehaving purposely, as my academics were very strong, so the physics book on hyperspace by Michio Kaku is an example of something I can somewhat absorb, even though many might not dare go near such a thing.  Some of the descriptions about our ability, or more correctly, inability to perceive extra dimensions gave me more insight into my feelings about first being born totally blind, then having some vision due to operations on my eyes, and then facingtotal blindness again due to disease of the eyes.  He quotes one perception analogy about hyperspace that discusses blindness and perception and understanding of color.  The analogy only holds if the blind person had never had vision.  I can't fault him for not having full understanding of this, as it wasn't really the point he was trying to get across.
Nonetheless the book was fascinating to me as such fields as physics and astronomy have always interested me.  

The reading of the Lewis Carroll double volume grew out of the Kaku book, as he cited some of the descriptions in it as apt for understanding the concept of multiple universes.  The initial rabbit hole scene somewhat resembles what it might be like to traverse an Einstein-Rosen wormhole bridge, if that is in fact possible.  

I then began thinking about how I have been lacking in my reading of the classics, especially fiction.  There have been a number of reasons for this.
They include the fact my life hasn't been anything of a fairy tale existence facing disability from birth, despite growing up fairly middle class.  I also felt pressure due to my Christian beliefs about the morality of enjoying and partaking in certain types of culture, including literary fiction.  

I first started with Huckleberry Finn, and made note of its treatment of our history with religious and racial issues.  It is fascinating to get something told in the local vernacular.  One aspect of relationships described in Huck Finn was the case of the young lady taking the initiative to get Huck to fetch her Bible; it was a ruse to establish another meeting.
Of course it was unusual in that time for a woman to be that forward.  

I then felt the need to read Tom Sawyer.  One of the most interesting things was finding inspiration for prayer, taking after the model described when the local church service was described.  We still have issues sometimes with the command performance aspects of faith that were described.  It was also interesting to look at how young romance was pursued at that time.  

I have just started Gone With The Wind, and am looking forward to a more in-depth treatment of romance.  As you can tell I haven't had much practical education on this, to my detriment.  

To that end, I also down loaded Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus in order to get some more practical information for today on this matter.  

So there you have it, my summer reading list to date.  

Bill Outman 

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