Stone Reader - good movie. Unfortunately it's only playing in a few venues, and I can't find any listing for the ones outside the U.S. though I do know it was screened in Perth, so it's out there. A docudrama about reading... well, mostly about one guy's obsession with one book and his search for what happened to its author after a well-reviewed but poorly circulated novel. If you love books, you will feel a kinship with the director/editor of the movie as he embarks on a quest that asks not only why this book is the only one produced by its author, but what is the relationship between authors and books, especially when they only write one. I certainly am curious now about the book he is obsessed with - The Stones of Summer - B&N are re-releasing it in September... though I don't know that I'll be curious enough to read all 552 pages of it!

And my first reason for saying I might not read the whole thing? I don't have enough time. But I think that might not be entirely accurate.

The one thought that kept recurring as I was watching the movie was that I was jealous of these men who seemed to have all the time in the world to read. I used to read all the time too - I read voraciously when I was younger. But when I started having kids, reading seemed to be something that there just wasn't any time for during the day, and then at night, no matter how interesting the book, the act of sitting still signalled my body that it was time to go to sleep - if I wasn't running after a child, my body assumed that the child was not conscious and it should follow the golden rule of 'sleep when the baby sleeps'. And so I did. This is why I read very little after the mid-eighties.

And so my first thought was, 'oh sure, that's fine for you guys - you aren't the ones running around after children all day'... and the fact that Moskowitz (the director) says at one point that autumn is his busiest season when he does nothing but work, and his wife and children understand, and reading is the only thing that keeps him sane made me think that reading is a luxury only available to the male, not the reproducing female. But then I realized that there is nothing (but lots of work) that would stop me from engaging in reading voraciously again - I have just gotten out of the habit... and developed a sense that reading for pleasure is a guilty pleasure when there are others around who might need my attention. So if I want to read more, then I just need to do it - if I could start with a goal of say four or five pleasure books a year: one or two that are in my extensive collection of books bought and never read, the one that wins the Booker, the one that wins the Governor General's award, and maybe, big maybe, the one that wins the Orange...but that last one would be only if I think the book is worth it 'cause I don't necessarily agree with the need for a separate award.

Since it's the end of June, should I count that as a resolution for 2003, or 2004?