Transneptune

So, I’ve had the notion of reading Daniel Deronda by George Eliot in my head for a bit, but, failing to find it at the bookstore, picked up Silas Marner, also by George Eliot.  I’m proceeding apace through Silas Marner, and was intending to move on to Daniel Deronda, which my mother sent me in the mail, but another book may be inserting itself between them: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.

Given that these books place my current reading within a 60-year period from 1861 to 1920, are there any other things on the must-read list in there?  I’m readjusting to reading fiction, and finding it just the thing.

Tags: current reading, edith wharton, george eliot by Kit
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Something is conspiring to keep me from reaching Utah for my open water certification.  Just before Africa, I intended to go, but had a headcold, which precluded diving.  Then this most recent time, I had what turned out to be an abscess on my leg (ew) which required lancing (ew ew) and thus precluded diving.  Aaaargh!

In other news, I’ve begun reading Silas Marner, which Katie has well-described as “Eliot Lite”.  It contains this quote, which I think well-captures my feelings since coming out here, sometimes more, sometimes less, but always to a degree:

Even people whose lives have been made various by learning, sometimes find it hard to keep a fast hold on their habitual views of life, on their faith in the Invisible, nay, on the sense that their past joys and sorrows are a real experience, when they are suddenly transported to a new land, where the beings around them know nothing of their history, and share none of their ideas—where their mother earth shows another lap, and human life has other forms than those on which their souls have been nourished.

Tags: diving, george eliot, health by Kit
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