Life more amazing than fiction

This is a brief follow-up to my set of three posts reviewing The Flanders Panel, Devil's Corner, and A Drink Before the War.

I happened to read the very last post in the series to my younger son last night- he is 13 and in 7th grade. He looked over my shoulder when I started reading and immediately said, "Is this like The Eight, because that was a really cool book." "What?", said I, "You read that? When?"
"Oh, I read it at the school library this year during comm arts (communication arts). I didn't bring it home because I thought I might lose it." He does tend to lose things. Anyway, I have to admit being stunned, and to exclaiming, "So you do read more than Stephen King! You were keeping this a secret?" I received the response I most deserved, "Gee, Dad, I guess I'll have to start giving you a list of everything I read." We immediately agreed that such oversight was unnecessary and undesirable. Anyway, it is a small thing, but in this world of video games, etc., I have to admit being truly excited to learn about this stealth reading.

Another brief comment: I have been working on my writing. In some cases this has involved re-writes of various posts, sometimes just a word or two, sometimes mixing and re-ordering thoughts into a new paragraph structure. I imagine that the RSS feed doesn't pick up on these edits (I wasn't subscribing to my own feed until this week for some reason, otherwise I would know). I suppose I should do a better job before I publish, the equivalent of looking before I leap, but I usually write in the middle of the night and my proofreading abilities are compromised. Reading the posts out loud later helps me locate parts for correction. If I were more patient, this all would be avoided, but I'm not. So, while there isn't much new content added, at the very least, late-adopters will see a slightly better writing style. If you read my review of The Flanders Panel but didn't see the note added later, at the very end, I suggest that you take a quick look: it encapsulates some of the amusement, pleasure and confusion that arise with translated fiction, a topic discussed on this site (search blog for translation), by Peter, and at Life in Translation, among other places.

Finally, after an unusual hiatus, I'm reading fiction again and just finished two more books in the Patrick/Angie series by Dennis Lehane. They were outstanding. Reviews to come soon, I hope.

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