I LIKE LIT

I was fortunate to grow up in a family that read and
that prized knowledge for its own sake. Every Satur-
day our parents would take my brother and me to the
local library to check out books. When i was a teen-
ager i would read up to maybe eight books at a time.

How does one do that? I would read one book until
i got tired of it and then would go on to the next book
and so on until i was tired of reading. I had a crying
need to experience the world beyond the boundaries
of the tiny little town i grew up in. (Those were the
days when there were only two--maybe three--TV
stations and the content was pretty mediocre.)

I haven't been able to read much since i went to grad-
uate school but i'm at a point now where i can start
the lush (book) life again. I still read a number of
books at one time; it would be no exaggeration to say
that there fifty books around my bed. I'm not read-
ing them all but they are all books i'm looking for-
ward to reading. I'm waiting for the day when you
can get a chip implant and download the book
straight to the brain.

Here is the first paragraph of a book i just finished
by the Swedish author Par Lagerkvist, winner of the
1951 Nobel Prize for this book, The Dwarf. Not sure
when it takes place but in the time of princes, castles,
and royal courts.

"I am twenty-six inches tall, shapely and well
proportioned, my head perhaps a trifle too large. My
hair is not black like the others', but reddish, very
stiff and thick, drawn back from the temples and the
broad but not especially lofty brow. My face is beard-
less, but otherwise just like that of other men. My eye-
brows meet. My bodily strength is considerable, par-
ticularly if I am annoyed. When the wrestling match
was arranged between Jehoshaphat and myself I
forced him onto his back after twenty minutes and
strangled him. Since then I have been the only dwarf
at this court."