Column: Of books and social norms

Four nights into reading Roderick Haig-Brown’s classic Fisherman’s Fall, I realized I had already read it. It took me hours over four nights to realize this. Later I found an empty package of 6X leader near the end of the book – the bookmark that charted my progress. In my defense, I figured I read it a few years ago when I bought Fisherman’s Winter, Fisherman’s Spring and Fisherman’s Summer.I know at this point my next statement is going to sound absurd, but I really do enjoy the book. How do you enjoy a book you don’t remember you read and that apparently you didn’t finish? Well, it’s not because I like to fly fish or because I teach high school English. It’s because it fits in the genre of books that just sooth the mind before bed. It’s not a plot driven, deeply symbolic masterpiece that warns society of a totalitarian government, drug cartels, censorship or anything like that. It’s simply the opposite of a screen’s blue light that is the antagonist of sleep. Honest words about fishing are the perfect ramp into unconsciousness.See full column at:http://www.sitnews.us/JLund/102019_jlund.html