In my continuous and successful efforts to put off listening to my "Learn to Speak Spanish" CD's while drive to and from work, I have listened to a couple of audio books recently.

First, Moby Dick. I somehow got through high school and college without ever being required to read this leviathan of a book. I listened to almost all of the 18 CD's (21 hours)...I only skipped over chapters when the excruciating digressions on whales, whaling, the color white, etc., became too painful. The fact that this is considered a classic of American Literature is mind-boggling to me. In fact, when it was published in 1851, it was not received well at all, despite the fact that Melville was already a somewhat successful writer. According to Wikipedia, the book never sold its entire 3,000 initial print run in Melville's lifetime and Melville's total payments from the American version were $556.

It was only much later, maybe as late as the 1920's (?) that another prominent American writer, I'm not sure who (maybe someone like Jed will know?) told people what a great book Moby Dick was. And since Americans like to be told what to like, it became a "classic" that has been foisted upon generations of students.

If I was editor for Moby Dick, I would have cut at least half the book, if not more. Good plot but the digressions hit the point of absurdity early and continued from there. The whole story of Moby Dick can be summarized by a terrific line from The Great Gatsby: "He paid a high price for living too long with a single dream." Which, come to think of it, summarized The Great Gatsby (probably my favorite book) as well.

The following are notes on books that I have very recently read or listened to; I guess I missed them when they first arrived.

Another audio book: Angela's Ashes, read by the author, Frank McCourt. Great story, incredible stuff. If you listen to NPR, you'll know what I mean when I say that this was a "driveway story." McCourt will crush almost all comers in misery poker regarding tough childhoods (except of course, victims of famine and disease in Africa).

Teacher Man. A second follow-up to Ashes, I would say "must-reading" for any teacher who cares about their students and anyone who likes McCourt.

The Kite Runner. I totally missed this when it was big a couple years ago. Great story, I realized halfway through that it is sort of historical fiction, not autobiographical.

Fun Vacation and Airplane Reading:

I Am Charlotte Simmons. I like Tom Wolfe, he has a great way of capturing people, culture, and dialog. Overdone in some places...this is a horror story if you have a daughter going to college anytime in the next ten years. Here's some more info on the book. Not a big critical success, but I enjoyed it.

Strip Tease. Carl Hiaasen is just plain fun to read. A couple of characters were bit too "over-the-top" (Hiaasen likes to push the envelope on "believability" for some charters, and he sometimes goes to far for my taste), but I zipped through this book and thought it was terrific--pure entertainment, mind candy.

Two Minute Rule. Everything I just said about Carl Hiaasen, multiply by 1.5x for Robert Crais. My father turned me on to Robert Crais about 6 years ago, and I was hooked from the first chapter of the first Crais book I read.