A Project

I think I've mentioned that I have a reading project in the works quite a few times now without actually expounding on what that project is. All of which makes it sound quite ambitious and complicated. It actually does feel rather ambitious, but certainly not complicated.

I am reading my shelves. I own so many books I haven't actually read and I keep adding to that number and I've decided it's time to work on lowering that number instead. I began in fiction, where I'd say I've read about 2/3 of my collection, and I'm just going through alphabetically and reading what has not been read. (While also reading some of this year's new books from my work library, as well as books for our summer book camp.)

I've made it through the A's and B's and am into the C's - Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness at the moment. I have some rather daunting mountains to climb down the road, but so far it's been quite satisfying. I really enjoyed Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and I was reminded of how much I like Willa Cather while reading The Professor's House.

As I said, today I'm reading Heart of Darkness. Not really my jam thus far, but as has so often been the case since the election, I've come across a passage that sheds some light on these current times. Marlow is fixing up his steamer and the Eldorado Exploring Expedition has appeared. He describes them in a way that sounds awfully familiar to this reader, who continues to watch with horror as American democracy is gutted from the inside out:

"Their talk, however, was the talk of sordid buccaneers; it was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage; there was not an atom of foresight or of serious intention in the whole batch of them, and they did not seem aware these things are wanted for the work of the world. To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe."