blog@cliffdweller

Last night I sat down and started reading a book.

I know, it's unusual. It was even a book written for adults, not teenagers (recent books: Grand and Humble, Last Chance Texaco, Order of the Poison Oak and Geography Club; all teen-oriented and all have one thing in common…) or kids (Green Eggs and Ham is still my favorite book).

In the past several years, I have read only two or three books written for adults (I was going to say Adult Books, but that sounds dirty). Reading teen-oriented books (that are interesting) keeps me in focus for the youth groups I manage.

I do go to a lot of movies made for adults. Murder mysteries, documentaries, action adventure, scary films, dramas, comedies, sci fi space operas, you name it, I go see it. I love animation, I especially love animation aimed at grown ups (Simpsons, Futurama, etc). But I haven't really sat down and read a fiction piece written for anyone over the age of 25 in a while.

So I went to the section in the book store that doesn't have any self-help, no computer manuals, no books on tape (iPod), no bestseller exposés, etc etc. I even bought a (gasp) used book. i think. Maybe it's just really old. That's not the issue, really.

So last night, after owning the book for 6 or 7 months, I finally cracked it open and started reading it. It's based back in the early 1900s, and it centers around a guy (so far) who murdered someone and was sent to prison. He's always in trouble in prison (altho it's not his fault) so he's always in solitary confinement. In the "dungeon" at San Quentin, he learns a secret tapping language and starts communicating with a couple of other (very real historical figures) prisoners.

that's as far as I've gotten (like page 37 or something), and I'm fascinated.

So, if you are not named Matt, and you can guess what the book is by that simple description, I'd like to know. It's been around for a long time and it's by an author I instantly recognize because he wrote a couple of books that I read when I was growing up. I even named a dog once after one of his main characters. Well, I didn't so much name the dog that name as just call it by that name all the time. Her real name was Chipper, she was a spitz. Enough with the clues! Matt's disqualified because (1) he recommended the book to me while (2) we were standing there looking at it in Powells.