Tom's Two Cents : On the Virtues of Big Books

Tom Wilkinson is a patron and special friend of the library.  He taught English at SMU, American Literature at Eastfield College, Art History at Richland College, and Humanities at NTCC.  He is now a retired Professor Emeritus at Richland, where he spent most of his teaching career.  He was born in Mt. Vernon and returned here to live in 1982.

 

We're going to start out with the assumption that you like to read or you wouldn't be reading this column!

But like so many of us you may be intimidated by big books.  Now when I say big I mean BIG--a thousand pages more or less--don't let that scare you, it's just, as they say, one page at a time!

I used to think I couldn't read anything longer than a thirty-minute sit-com.  We are kind of programmed that way these days.  In the 19th century things were different--people led simpler, less complicated lives, they savored the times of leisure-reading, and even looked forward to books in installments, sort of like our TV series programs of today.  They rarely ever thought, "It's too long!"

So if you are game I want to put you to the test.  I want to submit to you for the challenge of long, worthwhile reading the titles of some really long books, present, past and really past, that you might want to take on. For the next few weeks I'll pose them one at a time and see if I can't interest you beyond their length!

Next time: what should be everybody's favorite Western, but it's so much more than that: LONESOME DOVE.