Rainy Day Reading

People sometimes complain about the Oregon rain. It does get kind of grey and depressing in the winter, but there are days when I really like that. I love the sound of the rain on the roof over my back deck, I love building a fire and nestling down with under my favorite quilt with my little Lily dog. On such days we read or watch movies and eat popcorn.

Of late, it's been reading. As it turns out, I may be the only person on the planet who could not get into The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, so we are dividing our time between two other books:

1. Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Eleanore Pruitt Stewart.

I am reading my version on Kindle for Droid. Originally, I thought I would hate reading on a screen, but I'm kind of digging it. It will never replace holding a real book in my hands, but it is pretty cool for those times when you're waiting somewhere and need something to pass the time. It's also great for those times when you are in bed and want to read, but are too lazy to get up and turn on a light. Hey, it's not pretty, but when you don't have a bedside lamp, it happens.

If you don't have a Kindle or the book, you can also read it for free online.

The letters were written between 1909 - 1911. My favorite letter so far is the one in which the widowed Pruitt (she doesn't become a Stewart until later) takes off with her young daughter in the middle of winter to go camping. I love how independent and adventurous she was. And the letters are so good humored and descriptive. They're great fun to read!

2. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

Eating Animals isn't fun in the same way, but it's definitely well written and an eye opener, if you have never allowed yoruself to think too hard about where the stuff at the grocery store originated. I am feverishly trying to finish it, because the library wants it back and I am only about 2/3 of the way finished. A lot of it, I already knew, but reading it makes me happy about the dietary changes I've been making. I find the more I inform myself and keep the reality in my mind, the less easy it is for me drop the curtain that allows me to push it all out of my head. I've said it before, but we do some pretty vile and cruel things in the name of factory farming.