A sandwich for finishing the book

[John Roca]

At 11:21 PM 10/17/95 -0800, jeff severs wrote:

 Does everyone
>out there have their 100-pages-in, their lost "in the zone", and their
>finished friends? Or do my friends just suffer from acedia?
>
>
I first picked up TP sometime shortly after Vineland came out.  I recall
struggling to get though the first chapters and abandoning it for lack of
interest.  The book laid around the house for a few years until the summer
of 93 when I picked up V and COL49 at a bargain bin.  V. was also abandoned,
not for lack of interest, but due to my own inability to comprehend.  COL49,
on the other hand, and as everyone is aware, proved much easier to read, not
to mention enlightening insofar as TP's ideas are concerned.  

Later that summer I found GR in the bargain bin.  Notwithstanding my best
efforts, I was even more confused with it than when I had attempted V.
After a month, I likewise gave it up, but later started over.  I slowly
discovered that the obnly way for me to initially complete it was to just
read and not even to attempt to understand it.  A different method of
reading for me.  

Slowly, but surely, the whole thing started to take form into one general
idea or notion...incredibly it started to make sense.  I remember completing
it one night listening to Herb Score broadcasting a 22 inning game between
the Indians and the Twins that went late into the night (or early into the
morning).  As the innings progressed, I found myself absorbed in the
differing shifts of perception and viewpoints to such an extent that I
didn't want the game, or the book to end.  

The game, and the book ended in the bottom of the 22d inning.

I've been hooked ever since.

The point is that it is unfortunate that the general public doesn't read the
potboilers that they buy.  If they don't read the Clancy and King product,
they certainly would never give TP the chance.  I am one who believes that
the first reading of GR gave me a different perspective on so many
things...and those who haven't read it are missing out on one of the great
reading experiences of our time.  

I know this sounds snobbish, but that's how I feel.

John

PS-GO TRIBE!!!