Trying to be well-read

I am re-reading The Chosen, a book by Chaim Potok that I read and loved when I was in high school. I am now less than a week away from my youngest child entering high school as a sophomore, so it's obvious that it's been a long time since I read this book. I am on page ---oops, I left the book in the basket near the tub upstairs, so I can't give you that piece of information. Suffice it to say that I am approaching the mid-point of the book. I am somewhat surprised and gratified to see that this book that I loved so much 24 years ago is a book that both requires and provokes thought. I am moved to re-read The Once and Future King (another that I loved as a teeager)as well. I find myself delighted to realize that not only was I the socially active, somewhat flighty, decidedly flirty, diverse gal that I remember being.......I was also a thinker!! And I still am!! In fact, I think I have progressed as a thinker, though I am certain never to plumb the depths of thought that individuals such as Leanne and Levi explore. Just as getting into literal bodies of water, I imagine, would make me more claustrophobic as the depth increases, diving into the deeper end of the thought pool does, in fact, make my brain feel thoroughly squished and smashed to the point that implosion seems imminent.

In my efforts to be well-read, I have in recent years read such works as:

Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Emma
Persuasion
----and delving into the works of authors other than Jane Austen----
Vanity Fair
selected works of P.G. Wodehouse
The Crucible
The Screwtape Letters
and others that do not spring to mind presently.

There's a part of the classic movie Let's Make Love, when Yves Montand's character asks Marilyn Monroe's character what she is studying. Is it college? What? No, she says. She is going to night school, to get her high school diploma. When he asks why, she says, "I got tired of not knowing what people were referring to." That line inspires me every time I see that movie. I want to know from my own reading experiences, not just from my ability to guess rather intelligently, where others are coming from when they quote literature.

I have discovered, on this path to literacy, that there is no actual destination. It is a constant journey, and one that I am savoring!!!