Journal of a Sabbatical

December 5, 2000

reading material revisited

Today's Reading: Autumn from the Journal of Henry David Thoreau edited by H.G.O. Blake, Escape from Kathmandu by Kim Stanley Robinson, The Island of Penguins by Cherry Kearton

Finished Escape from Kathmandu. After months of reading The Dream of the Red Chamber it's quite a contrast. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Several people have recommended Kim Stanley Robinson's Antarctica, as well as Red Mars, to me but this is the first Robinson I've read. I bought it for Andrea because she likes fantasy and I thought she might get a kick out of reading about the Himalayas (some of it takes place in Tibet) especially since there are even botanists (and Buddhists) in it. However, I figured since it’s not intended for kids I’d better read it first. I was surprised at how much I liked it.

So is it suitable for a precocious 9 year old (egad, she's 9!)?

Andrea would never understand some of the humor or the cultural references. There's a hilarious scene in which the main character introduces a yeti (in disguise) to Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter that would definitely lose something if you don't know who Jimmy Carter is. So I don't know if Andrea would get the joke.

Then there's the more serious drawback of a couple of characters talking about smoking hash. They only actually smoke it in one scene near the end, but with the zero tolerance atmosphere nowadays I don't know if it's OK to give a kid a book in which a character even thinks about drugs.

Oh, and in the very last chapter somebody uses the f word a couple of times. It's not like she's never heard the f word in her life but in the current zero tolerance atmosphere... you get the picture.

I actually think she can handle it, but will have to discuss with my political advisors...