The Reading Platter

Last weekend I took the time to read a 40-page short story from Flights of Love, Bernhard Schlink's volume of short stories published in 2000. Most of the stories were written before he wrote The Reader, published in the U.S. in 1998, and were published here in an attempt to fill the appetite of readers awed by the best-selling novel.

Oh, how I long to have more hours to read! This week was a five-day commute, and I'm eating up what might have been reading time driving to and from the college. Yes, I listen to audiobooks. Right now, I'm on the fourth CD of the 20-disc set of Life by Keith Richards. Johnny Depp is the reader, and I have nothing against him, but he is reading the 700-page tome in a total monotone and is swallowing the end of every sentence. I am constantly straining to hear the last words of the sentence, over and over again. I think Depp thinks he's reading the autobiography the way Richards would have delivered it. All very well, but it is numbing audio. I had no idea it would be more rewarding to read the book. But here I am in possession of the audio. Blast!