readings

There is great deal of good things that can be said about Instant Messaging, and in my case, the "iChat":http://www.apple.com/macosx/jaguar/ichat.html. Chatting with your friends, is a good thing, but chatting about reading experiences with your friend living in another country of a different time zone, for nothing more than about 7 cents per hours, that's nearly priceless. The summary of a particular conversation I had with mi amiga about reading is as follows: Fine reading is like fine dining. If one has a heightened palette sensitivity, the experience becomes more pleasurable. In a fine dining experience, one would go through a whole series of courses (appetizer, soups, salads, main course, dessert, etc.) with a wide range of complementing flavors (spicy, sour, sweet), textures (creamy, tender, light, bold), colors (red, green, orange) and aroma. If one is not sure what constitutes a good meal, she would turn to others who can provide expert advice. If she is not to concern about the "fine" part of the culinary experience, she can eat anything she wants and consume calories indiscriminately. Some books do go well together if one decides to read more than one book within a period of time. "Serious" books can be coupled with light reading and if the themes complement each other, the experience is much more exciting. For example, "Michael Chabon":http://michaelchabon.com/'s "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312282990/qid=1052931839/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-0842461-3823267?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 reads well with Doctorow's "Ragtime":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679602976/qid=1052931961/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/002-0842461-3823267. Good authors write in different styles, and good books invoke different reactions and emotions: joy, sorrow, hope, repentance, and so forth. If one is not sure what constitutes a good reading, she would turn to others who can provide expert advice. And of course, she can always consume any written words, void of careful distinction.