Gettin' My Geek On

We were at the local library last week and I saw a flyer for a Law and Literature program so I took the plunge and signed up.

The first meeting was last Monday and the book for discussion was Billy Budd by Herman Melville. I only had a couple days to read the book, but since it's only about 100 pages I figured that would be no problem.

Wrong.

After two paragraphs I was looking for Spark Notes online to understand what was happening. I used the dictionary feature on my kindle a couple times too.

I made it about 1/3 of the way through the book and all the way through the summary on Wikipedia, so I went to the meeting. It was a dreary night and I felt like I ought to go in case no one else did.

Wrong again. There was a hearty group of about 25 in attendance. 24 women all my age or above and many seemed to know each other. A nice woman sat next to me and we were both excited to realize we had several things in common: both first timers, hadn't finished the book and she was a criminal defense attorney.

The discussion (two hours) was lead by a college professor. The first hour was mostly lecture with slides and I'm still not sure how it related to the book. The second hour was discussion and that was interesting.

The program appears to be funded by a bequest from a woman's estate and the library provides books and (presumably) pays the discussion leader. We meet every two weeks and there's a different professor each time.

I sort of wish I'd finished Billy Budd because the issues we talked about were interesting. But, I'm not going to go back and pick up where I left off.

We meet again on January 25 to discuss Puddn'head Wilson by Mark Twain. There's still time for you to read the book.

What about you? Have you read Billy Budd? Or Spark Notes?