The stories on my iPod were all screwed up. I tried to put the last Honor Harrington book on it, but it was scrambled. Although the order of the chapters seemed to be totally random, I was enjoying the book. It turns out Honor is pregnant, has a kid goes into battle and then is pregnant again with the same child. Finally, I stopped listening as I did not want to ruin the book for when I finally figured out how to straighten it out. I used a program called Markable, which often gets confused when it merges all the MP3 files into 1 hour sections.

I had to resort to reading!

I snatched a book from the top of a pile as I left for work. It is Human Being by Christopher Marley. I picked it up at a flea market last year for a quarter. I have enjoyed rereading Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop many times. These books are available on Project Gutenberg and are in any good library. They are two of the best books that you can every read if you love books and reading. They were written for those of us who read for pleasure. Again, if you haven’t read them, run to the library and get a copy of each. You will not regret it.

Human Being was published in 1932 as opposed to Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop, which were published in 1917 and 1919. Wikipedia does not know about Human Being at all and I can’t find any discussion of it on the web.

The book is about a man who undergoes a kind of midlife crisis and decides to write the biography of a man who he had met just once and then died. This is not only the biography of Richard Roe but a biography of the Biographer, writes Morley.

Morley is a remarkably easy to read writer. The words flow in a kind, pleasant and thoroughly enjoyable stream. Every sentence is designed to make you smile. It is probably too light weight for these heavy times, but I think down deep there is some good solid bedrock.

Some random quotes:

Lucille Roe and her sister Hazel (Mrs. Herman Schmaltz) were agreed that is was inconsiderate of Richard to die on a ferryboat; and going towards Hoboken, too, from which she and Hazel had escaped many years ago.

Once he heard a speech in Congress, from the Visitors’ Gallery – some deplorable rhodomontade with a ludicrous Star-Spangled peroration. He was moved; he tingled and applauded. But what else would you have him do?

A Pekinese is only a very small micturating mandarin on four legs, subject to numerous snobbish fallacies.

Lucile did not like Richard to stay out alone very long because in some obscure way she feared he might be thinking. This was wise of her, for she observed as he grew older that thinking was his chief danger.

So you get the idea. It is clever and witty and there is some nice truth to be had from each sentence. If you miss a sentence now and then because the bus lurches, you can pick it up the next time you read, but you don’t have to worry about missing a key point in the plot.