Blogging from Paradise!

I sit here, writing this blog, from what has to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet! Have you ever heard of Zihuatanejo, Mexico? No? Well, most people haven’t. It is situated next to a little bay (aptly named Zihuatanejo Bay) in southern Mexico, about an hour and a half north of Acapulco. I am sitting on the veranda with a dipping pool bubbling about five feet to my left, my husband on the lounge chair beside me, and my children asleep on the pullout sofa in the living room behind me, for which we slid closed the doors that open up to the veranda and the bay and the Pacific Ocean beyond. I have been resting in this absolute PARADISE for three and a half days now. I have already consumed two books, and plan to read at least one or two more before this blog gets published. (If it doesn’t get published soon, that would be because I’ve refused to leave and plan to live here forever! Just saying…) (Strike that! Yay for free wi-fi!)

The first book I read upon arrival was I Am Number Four by Pitticus Lore (a pseudonym, or truly the ruling elder of the planet Lorien, from which the main character and narrator came from). Like much of today’s YA lit, this story is long on story, short on literary elements, which is fine with me, because this is the kind of books that kids are reading today, and as long as they’re reading, does it really matter what? Four, AKA Daniel Jones, AKA John Smith, is the fourth of nine children sent to Earth from Lorien, when the Mogadorians annihilated their planet. A charm was placed on them so that they could only be killed in a certain order. Each time one is killed, a scar encircles their right ankle. Every time a scar shows up, Four and his guardian high-tail it to a new location with new identities. Especially now that his turn is up. Throughout this book, Four has to deal with bullies, first-ever friends, first-loves, and an army of Mogadorians out to get him. I wonder if the movie will live up to the book. (Doubt it… but I’ll go see it anyways!)

The second book I devoured in the course of this morning and afternoon. It was Anthem by Ayn Rand. I have never read Rand before and got this book because it was free on my Kindle and I know a few people who view Atlas Shrugged as their Bible. This book is told mostly in the first person plural, from the point of view of a man in a future society that, like most dystopias, has regressed for the most part. The narrator’s name is Equality 7-2521 and it is told from the plural because in his society, there is no singular. People don’t exist except as a group. Anything that is done for the self is evil. Everything that the group doesn’t condone is evil. This book looks deeply at an extreme form of communism, where there can be no self, no individuality, only community. While I highly enjoyed reading this book, I am not sure that the ending shows a much better future. Is it supposed to be metaphorical or literal? Taken metaphorically, I think it accurately portrays how a person would feel given the situation. Taken literally, it is kind of scary and would lead to a society with even greater problems. And maybe that is part of her commentary… that no society is really good. What do you think?

If you’re following my blog, don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about those books I said I was going to write about for the last two weeks now! I just left them at home and only brought my Kindle. I didn’t want to be lugging around three or four largish hard bound books! Right now I am reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larrsen and The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare.