Simply Read it Through

Tender reader, you know I’ve been keeping crazy hours.  I didn’t have a midnight call last night.  But after the 9:00PM call and follow-up afterwards, I just went to sleep and as a result woke up early around 1:00AM.  Not tossing and turning.  But up.  And the Mrs. wasn’t in bed yet, great coordination between us.  So, I turned on the light and made my way through a novel from Zimbabwe, that my daughter is reading for school: “Nervous Conditions” by Tsitsi Dangarembga.  Propped up on the pillow, I read it straight through, Tambu’s remarkable coming of age. 

I crashed out with my wife when she finally entered the bed not long after I’d finished the novel.  But before long I was up again trudged out to the living room, turned on the thermostat, and checked emails and texts in the office room.  And before I got pulled into the world COVID-19 and the primaries, on the morning news, I let myself start up another book I had on the Congo:  “Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa,” by Jason Stearns.  Written as what seemed to be an elaboration of in depth articles he’d written during the period concerned, it offered more color but ultimately was a less satisfying read than the same treatment of that puzzle-wrapped in an enigma, handled in the relevant chapters of: Congo: The Epic History of a People,”  by David Van Reybrouck, which I’d finished the day before.   

It was also a lot shorter than the Van Reybrouck, book and I was done with it by 9:30AM or so.  I had one call.  Another was cancelled.   I looked out at the yard and considered all the critters feasting on the seeds I’d thrown not long ago and then considered my desk.  Yes, there was work, to do.  Yes, I ought to go out and get some exercise.  But there on the desk was “Life and a Half” by the Congolese writer, Sony Labou Tansi.  It was only one-hundred and thirty pages long and I told myself I’d only read the first twenty pages, which turned into the first half the novel and then, as it roughly preceded, I decided to simply read it through. 

I appreciate that I do not sound very busy, if I have time to read three books in a day.  In fact, there is a bit of a waiting-game underway on a key business effort or two.  And while there are always another few emails one could reply to, it is a comparatively slow time, what with the virus and the harvest of a reasonably productive work-weekend.  Around noon my package came and there are two more books about the Congo, along with a new pair of jeans.  My other pair evidenced an unseemly gash the other day, right beside the front zipper.  Still don't know how it happened.  But they were ruined.  That wouldn’t do.  But enough is enough.  I went out for a bike ride, took a shower, had some lunch and got some work done.  But I confess, I’ve also already read the first twenty pages of Alain Mabanckou’s “Black Moses,” which I suspect wall also be completed before the morrow’s dawn. 

Monday, 03/02/20