reading is fundamental

i find it hilarious that lately, i've been writing practically nothing but book reviews for the i-94 bar. before i quit my ad agency gig almost a yr ago, i hadn't read anything longer than a cereal box in _ages_. i just didn't have the attention span. even when i was attempting to make a living as a journo, i only read my own copy. for shame! anyway, since last october, i've been reading voraciously: music shite, sci-fi, even ulysses (finally!). of late, maybe thinking about my old man, maybe influenced a tad by teague's interest in japonica beyond the music sphere, i've been a little more curious about things japanese. last week, my sweetie 'n' i watched hiroshi inagaki's 1962 film version of japan's "national story," chushingura, the tale of 47 samurai who plot to avenge their lord's death, even though it means their lives are also forfeit. i'd seen it at a theater in nyc when i was a kid, but it has a lot more resonance now, of course. in the same way as i determined when i was 40 to read moby-dick and huck finn because i never had up to then, i think this yr i'm gonna try and read the tale of genji, by lady murasaki, which is acknowledged as the world's first novel. after that, i think i might tackle seamus heaney's translation of beowulf, a bullet i managed to duck back in high school because back then (early '70s), "relevance" was the academic flavor o' the month (altho if i'd stayed at what was then tarrant county junior college, i'd have gladly gone through it in b.d. trail's brit lit class).