Nancy's Reads & Reels: She Resolves To Read More 'Literature,' Poetry

My New Year's resolution is to read more "literature" and poetry.

I read a lot of books and maybe they are literature, but most are entertainment and don't require a lot of thought. Poetry has always puzzled me. I don't understand most of it.

Living in William Faulkner’s hometown, Oxford, Mississippi, his name came up constantly. My stepfather was a professor at Ole Miss, and he and my mother were friends with Faulkner’s one-time attorney, Phil Stone, and his wife.

My mother yearned to catch sight of Faulkner strolling around Oxford and I think she did.  She is now buried in the same cemetery as Faulkner. If she only knew, that might be some consolation.

I was always thinking that I should read one of Faulkner’s novels. I’d seen the movies, of course, but that’s not like reading the book. So I finally read As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury and Light in August, thanks to Oprah and her Book Club. I did it — I read Faulkner, and I’m proud of it even if no one but me cares.

Why read Faulkner? It’s great literature. “Literature” -- the very word makes one hesitate.  Current books labeled “literary” rarely reach the bestseller lists, Freedom, a novel by Jonathan Franzen being an exception that comes to mind.

How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom is an excellent way to make you feel guilty about all the literature you haven’t read.  Bloom’s reasoning that one should read to discover and augment the self makes sense.

When your kids come home moaning and groaning about the reading list that the teacher has assigned, maybe that’s an opportunity to read one of the books and have a conversation.  My grandson was assigned The Giver and my daughter and I read it and found it to be very thought provoking. 

The movie Margaret inspired me to read the poem from which the title is taken, Sping and Fall: To a Young Child by Gerard Manley Hopkins. I now vow to read a poem a day.

I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions, but these sound doable.