The Conch Book

Conversation during Christmas dinner was varied, however, we did talk a lot about books and movies. Our guest is a great reader and she is reading through the classics, which I have started to do as well. She is currently reading Middlemarch, while I'm reading The Sun Also Rises - probably not a lot in common. During the course of the conversation, we mentioned Lord of the Flies. My daughter said, Oh, the conch book!

I thought it was an amazing way to identify a book in just a single word or image. I had totally forgotten about the conch. I remembered Simon and Piggy. However, my daughter remembered the "call to order." The original effort to create a responsible society. Well, she does have a BA in Community Design.

I have just finished Jane Eyre and wished it would never end. Improbable though some of the situations in the novel were, they were still engaging and directed by a strong sense of Calvinistic justice. I don't think that I could have chosen a novel more opposed in style and morals to Jane Eyre, than the one I am reading now by Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises. It is an adventure too, though in quite a different way.

The next two on my list are, Grapes of Wrath and Jude The Obscure. I have read other books by Steinbeck and Hardy; however, these two are on almost every list of 100 books to read before you die or something like that.

I guess, in time, I will try to remember each in a single word or phrase. This could be fun!!

The picture? Unfortunately, I didn't have a conch shell. This is a Welk from our collection of dead shells. (I have learned never to take a live shell from the beach.) We don't have a large collection. We brought a few home in a pail and they've never left. It did make me think, though, that if Lord of the Flies were considered a conch book, I wonder if there are any welk books out there? These would be not as grand, but still interesting.

Have a wonderful day!!