Thoughts From My Sickbed

Well, I hope that this doesn't signify the trajectory of my health this year, but I have been one sick puppy for the last few days. Fever, cough, phlegm, aches.... blegh. I still don't really know what kind of germs my immune system has been fighting, but my brainy P.A. sister's best guess was either bacterial bronchitis or pneumonia. Pneumonia! Who gets that anymore? (My sister also asked if I could have somehow contracted tuberculosis, which she then ruled out, but still. Come on. Tuberculosis? Oh boy. Cough cough.)

Needless to say, I have barely moved from bed since Friday evening, and my mattress may now permanently have an indentation of my body curled up in the fetal position. Delightful! Like memory foam, only... sicker...

But fret not, People of the Interweb, for today is a new day, and I shall attempt to rejoin society with the aid of my trusty antibiotics. With my fever finally gone and my pallor slightly less ghostly, here are the lessons I have learned from my sickbed:

Netflix needs to improve its comedy section, or I need to revise my film preferences. I relied a lot on Netflix to provide some streaming movie entertainment while I pathetically shivered beneath my blankets, and for the most part, it served its purpose. I watched some silly movies that helped lighten the mood and provide a distraction from my TB cough, but I was underwhelmed with the selection. Most of the choices I had either already seen or didn't care to see. Netflix: Give me more good movies options, please!

Ginger ale and seltzer water always help. Even though I didn't have a stomach bug, there's something about carbonated beverages that make me feel better when I'm sick. I'm not sure why, but I'll just go with it. 

Having a view of the outside world can be cheery. I was stuck in pretty much the same position for about three days, but it was nice to get some natural light from our windows, and when the weather warmed up a little bit on Sunday and Monday, I even cracked the windows for some fresh air. Fresh air feels so cleansing, and I definitely believe that it helps lift morale, as well as filters in some clean, non-germy air. 

Comfort foods are nice, but veggies are healing. As much as I love a nice, crispy pizza or a giant bowl of mac & cheese, I really try to up my veggie intake when I'm sick. My immune system needs all the help it can get, and I feel more positive when I'm giving it things like sweet potatoes and broccoli. Of course, a chocolate chip cookie can't hurt, either. :)

We really need to clean off the top of that dresser. Seriously. I've been staring at the dresser that sits against the wall across from the bed for days now, and I have no choice but to confront the clutter that has accumulated there. A mirror that needs to be properly hung, a wash cloth that never found its way to the linen closet, assorted papers... it all must go!

And there you have it. My fever-assisted wisdom. Any nuggets of wisdom that you've collected? Any tips that help ease a bout with the plague? Let me know! And in the meantime... don't forget to

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100 Best Novels: On the Road

"What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing?-- it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-by. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies."

Jack Kerouac's On the Road is one of those novels that my sixteen-year-old self would have loved-- so why did it take me until now to read it?

This tale of soul-searching in 1940s America features Sal Paradise, the narrator, and his buddy, the cool/manic/alcoholic Dean Moriarty. His name alone invokes images of a man dripping with cool. In the end, though, his legend gives way to reality, and Sal and Dean end up diverging in their paths. The trip must end.

My younger self would undoubtedly have romanticized this story. The idea of criss-crossing the country on a whim, peeking into the varied lives of ordinary people, all while partying and getting into shenanigans with your closest buddies, sounds like a fun way to soul-search, if not one that's filled with debauchery. Truthfully, though, I'm glad that I waited until I was a bit older to read On the Road. While this is essentially a story of a young man's search for meaning and truth, the romanticism that my teenaged self would likely have imposed on that search would not have done this novel justice. Rather than spout a manic tale of drug-fueled truth-finding, Kerouac showed that the search for meaning can be heartbreaking and cruel and messy and incomplete. How can anyone find happiness and meaning in a world that had just endured a World War? The Beat Generation sought to find out. 

The journeying and constant motion in pursuit of some sort of truth define this novel. Ultimately, there are no easy answers, and it's unclear whether any true meaning has been grasped. But that's okay. The journey is the story. Sal ultimately chooses a conventional life after his travels, having been abandoned by Dean earlier on. And while there might be some sadness in that, I think it's the only way for Sal to have a chance at happiness. Dean represents the alternative, the ceaseless wandering without commitment, which, while maybe serving as a way to gain freedom in the beginning, ultimately seems sad and even a bit heartbreaking. But even with all that, the tug of nostalgia for the road and for the figure of Dean Moriarty remains.

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars."

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100 Best Novels

1. "Ulysses," James Joyce

2. "The Great Gatsby," F. Scott Fitzgerald

3. "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," James Joyce

4. "Lolita," Vladimir Nabokov

5. "Brave New World," Aldous Huxley

6. "The Sound and the Fury," William Faulkner

7. "Catch-22," Joseph Heller

8. "Darkness at Noon," Arthur Koestler

9. "Sons and Lovers," D. H. Lawrence

10. "The Grapes of Wrath," John Steinbeck

11. "Under the Volcano," Malcolm Lowry

12. "The Way of All Flesh," Samuel Butler

13. "1984," George Orwell

14. "I, Claudius," Robert Graves

15. "To the Lighthouse," Virginia Woolf

16. "An American Tragedy," Theodore Dreiser

17. "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter," Carson McCullers

18. "Slaughterhouse Five," Kurt Vonnegut

19. "Invisible Man," Ralph Ellison

20. "Native Son," Richard Wright

21. "Henderson the Rain King," Saul Bellow

22. "Appointment in Samarra," John O' Hara

23. "U.S.A." (trilogy), John Dos Passos

24. "Winesburg, Ohio," Sherwood Anderson

25. "A Passage to India," E. M. Forster

26. "The Wings of the Dove," Henry James

27. "The Ambassadors," Henry James

28. "Tender Is the Night," F. Scott Fitzgerald

29. "The Studs Lonigan Trilogy," James T. Farrell

30. "The Good Soldier," Ford Madox Ford

31. "Animal Farm," George Orwell

32. "The Golden Bowl," Henry James

33. "Sister Carrie," Theodore Dreiser

34. "A Handful of Dust," Evelyn Waugh

35. "As I Lay Dying," William Faulkner

36. "All the King's Men," Robert Penn Warren

37. "The Bridge of San Luis Rey," Thornton Wilder

38. "Howards End," E. M. Forster

39. "Go Tell It on the Mountain," James Baldwin

40. "The Heart of the Matter," Graham Greene

41. "Lord of the Flies," William Golding

42. "Deliverance," James Dickey

43. "A Dance to the Music of Time" (series), Anthony Powell

44. "Point Counter Point," Aldous Huxley

45. "The Sun Also Rises," Ernest Hemingway

46. "The Secret Agent," Joseph Conrad

47. "Nostromo," Joseph Conrad

48. "The Rainbow," D. H. Lawrence

49. "Women in Love," D. H. Lawrence

50. "Tropic of Cancer," Henry Miller

51. "The Naked and the Dead," Norman Mailer

52. "Portnoy's Complaint," Philip Roth

53. "Pale Fire," Vladimir Nabokov

54. "Light in August," William Faulkner

55. "On the Road," Jack Kerouac

56. "The Maltese Falcon," Dashiell Hammett

57. "Parade's End," Ford Madox Ford

58. "The Age of Innocence," Edith Wharton

59. "Zuleika Dobson," Max Beerbohm

60. "The Moviegoer," Walker Percy

61. "Death Comes to the Archbishop," Willa Cather

62. "From Here to Eternity," James Jones

63. "The Wapshot Chronicles," John Cheever

64. "The Catcher in the Rye," J. D. Salinger

65. "A Clockwork Orange," Anthony Burgess

66. "Of Human Bondage," W. Somerset Maugham

67. "Heart of Darkness," Joseph Conrad

68. "Main Street," Sinclair Lewis

69. "The House of Mirth," Edith Wharton

70. "The Alexandria Quartet," Lawrence Durrell

71. "A High Wind in Jamaica," Richard Hughes

72. "A House for Ms. Biswas," V. S. Naipaul

73. "The Day of the Locust," Nathaniel West

74. "A Farewell to Arms," Ernest Hemingway

75. "Scoop," Evelyn Waugh

76. "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," Muriel Spark

77. "Finnegans Wake," James Joyce

78. "Kim," Rudyard Kipling

79. "A Room With a View," E. M. Forster

80. "Brideshead Revisited," Evelyn Waugh

81. "The Adventures of Augie March," Saul Bellow

82. "Angle of Repose," Wallace Stegner

83. "A Bend in the River," V. S. Naipaul

84. "The Death of the Heart," Elizabeth Bowen

85. "Lord Jim," Joseph Conrad

86. "Ragtime," E. L. Doctorow

87. "The Old Wives' Tale," Arnold Bennett

88. "The Call of the Wild," Jack London

89. "Loving," Henry Green

90. "Midnight's Children," Salman Rushdie

91. "Tobacco Road," Erskine Caldwell

92. "Ironweed," William Kennedy

93. "The Magus," John Fowles

94. "Wide Sargasso Sea," Jean Rhys

95. "Under the Net," Iris Murdoch

96. "Sophie's Choice," William Styron

97. "The Sheltering Sky," Paul Bowles

98. "The Postman Always Rings Twice," James M. Cain

99. "The Ginger Man," J. P. Donleavy

100. "The Magnificent Ambersons," Booth Tarkington

100 Best Novels: Native Son

Native Son was one of those heartbreaking novels that, when I turned the final page and closed the book, caused me to heave a giant sigh and close my eyes so I could center myself. Wow, I thought. Wow.

The author, Richard Wright, essentially wrote an exposé of racial tensions and divides in 1930s Chicago and tells the story of Bigger Thomas, a young man who, while a bit unsympathetic as a character, tragically lives out his fate of devastating crime and murder. It raises difficult questions about whether people, in particular those who are oppressed by those who have power, can live an existence outside of the ugly stereotypes imposed upon them. Bigger is an extreme example of somebody who falls victim to a life tainted with, and at the same time created by, terrible racial injustice. At the same time, his story of limited opportunities and of institutional and individual misunderstanding is not so extreme, and he demonstrates the dangers of a racist society. 

It's no surprise that Native Son has landed on so many banned book lists and is often challenged when it appears on reading lists-- to be fair, it has some brutal scenes that were a tad horrifying. However, they serve a purpose in the novel, and I think its handling of the complicated truths of racism and hatred make this book one that must be read, not one that must be feared or censored. 

Overall, I think that this is a powerful book, and it's clear how it landed on the 100 Best Novels list. If you're in the mood for an emotional, gripping read, consider Native Son!

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100 Best Novels

1. "Ulysses," James Joyce

2. "The Great Gatsby," F. Scott Fitzgerald

3. "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," James Joyce

4. "Lolita," Vladimir Nabokov

5. "Brave New World," Aldous Huxley

6. "The Sound and the Fury," William Faulkner

7. "Catch-22," Joseph Heller

8. "Darkness at Noon," Arthur Koestler

9. "Sons and Lovers," D. H. Lawrence

10. "The Grapes of Wrath," John Steinbeck

11. "Under the Volcano," Malcolm Lowry

12. "The Way of All Flesh," Samuel Butler

13. "1984," George Orwell

14. "I, Claudius," Robert Graves

15. "To the Lighthouse," Virginia Woolf

16. "An American Tragedy," Theodore Dreiser

17. "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter," Carson McCullers

18. "Slaughterhouse Five," Kurt Vonnegut

19. "Invisible Man," Ralph Ellison

20. "Native Son," Richard Wright

21. "Henderson the Rain King," Saul Bellow

22. "Appointment in Samarra," John O' Hara

23. "U.S.A." (trilogy), John Dos Passos

24. "Winesburg, Ohio," Sherwood Anderson

25. "A Passage to India," E. M. Forster

26. "The Wings of the Dove," Henry James

27. "The Ambassadors," Henry James

28. "Tender Is the Night," F. Scott Fitzgerald

29. "The Studs Lonigan Trilogy," James T. Farrell

30. "The Good Soldier," Ford Madox Ford

31. "Animal Farm," George Orwell

32. "The Golden Bowl," Henry James

33. "Sister Carrie," Theodore Dreiser

34. "A Handful of Dust," Evelyn Waugh

35. "As I Lay Dying," William Faulkner

36. "All the King's Men," Robert Penn Warren

37. "The Bridge of San Luis Rey," Thornton Wilder

38. "Howards End," E. M. Forster

39. "Go Tell It on the Mountain," James Baldwin

40. "The Heart of the Matter," Graham Greene

41. "Lord of the Flies," William Golding

42. "Deliverance," James Dickey

43. "A Dance to the Music of Time" (series), Anthony Powell

44. "Point Counter Point," Aldous Huxley

45. "The Sun Also Rises," Ernest Hemingway

46. "The Secret Agent," Joseph Conrad

47. "Nostromo," Joseph Conrad

48. "The Rainbow," D. H. Lawrence

49. "Women in Love," D. H. Lawrence

50. "Tropic of Cancer," Henry Miller

51. "The Naked and the Dead," Norman Mailer

52. "Portnoy's Complaint," Philip Roth

53. "Pale Fire," Vladimir Nabokov

54. "Light in August," William Faulkner

55. "On the Road," Jack Kerouac

56. "The Maltese Falcon," Dashiell Hammett

57. "Parade's End," Ford Madox Ford

58. "The Age of Innocence," Edith Wharton

59. "Zuleika Dobson," Max Beerbohm

60. "The Moviegoer," Walker Percy

61. "Death Comes to the Archbishop," Willa Cather

62. "From Here to Eternity," James Jones

63. "The Wapshot Chronicles," John Cheever

64. "The Catcher in the Rye," J. D. Salinger

65. "A Clockwork Orange," Anthony Burgess

66. "Of Human Bondage," W. Somerset Maugham

67. "Heart of Darkness," Joseph Conrad

68. "Main Street," Sinclair Lewis

69. "The House of Mirth," Edith Wharton

70. "The Alexandria Quartet," Lawrence Durrell

71. "A High Wind in Jamaica," Richard Hughes

72. "A House for Ms. Biswas," V. S. Naipaul

73. "The Day of the Locust," Nathaniel West

74. "A Farewell to Arms," Ernest Hemingway

75. "Scoop," Evelyn Waugh

76. "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," Muriel Spark

77. "Finnegans Wake," James Joyce

78. "Kim," Rudyard Kipling

79. "A Room With a View," E. M. Forster

80. "Brideshead Revisited," Evelyn Waugh

81. "The Adventures of Augie March," Saul Bellow

82. "Angle of Repose," Wallace Stegner

83. "A Bend in the River," V. S. Naipaul

84. "The Death of the Heart," Elizabeth Bowen

85. "Lord Jim," Joseph Conrad

86. "Ragtime," E. L. Doctorow

87. "The Old Wives' Tale," Arnold Bennett

88. "The Call of the Wild," Jack London

89. "Loving," Henry Green

90. "Midnight's Children," Salman Rushdie

91. "Tobacco Road," Erskine Caldwell

92. "Ironweed," William Kennedy

93. "The Magus," John Fowles

94. "Wide Sargasso Sea," Jean Rhys

95. "Under the Net," Iris Murdoch

96. "Sophie's Choice," William Styron

97. "The Sheltering Sky," Paul Bowles

98. "The Postman Always Rings Twice," James M. Cain

99. "The Ginger Man," J. P. Donleavy

100. "The Magnificent Ambersons," Booth Tarkington