Books and Magazines

I finished "The Chocolate War" a few days ago and I don't think I actually read it before after all. None of it rang any bells. Maybe I wanted to read it but never got to it. It was a really good book, but I could tell that I've been reading nothing but Newbery's for a long time. Every swear word was a slap and there were lots of references to...well it's set in an all boys prep school and you know what boys do! Shocking! But despite the language and all the sex talk, it was a great read. I've started now The Outsiders, which I know I have never read or (believe it or not) seen the movie.

The kids and I just got back from playing tennis. If you think it's easy for three people to play tennis, two of which are kids whom tennis experience is made up of 6 classes last summer, than you've never tried it. Luckily, the court up at LCCC with the wall opened up and we could hit the ball against the wall for a good long time. We left when we finally hit the final ball over the fence and into the field. Some genius has written "You Suck" on the wall. I was starting to believe it after awhile.

But the reason I am blogging today was an article I just read in Discover magazine. Discover is my favorite magazine ever! It's my forever gift from my dad who buys the subscription. I think he does it just so we have something to talk about! Most anything interesting I tell people starts with "This article in Discover said..." The article today was about a guy who gives happiness lesson, that being he teaches people to be happier in order to improve their lives. It was a very well written article full of point and counterpoint. He says that happy people are healthier, live longer, are more productive and successful. Others countered that being happy all the time is unnatural and unrealistic. I was digging it and then came the side bar, which is very cool. Titled "Dead Poets' Anxiety", here's the first sentence.

"Poets who committed suicide were much more likely to have used first person singular references like "I"," me", and "my" and fewer first person plural words like we, us, and ours.... Suicidal poets also tended to use fewer communication terms like "talk", "share" and "listen". Then there was a contrast of Sylvia Plath and Denise Levertov.
I'm sure this isn't true of all poets, but what a cool thing to study and find a correlation in!