Reading for pleasure

This painting is one of a number I've done of people reading.
One of the subjects I teach is English, and it makes me sad that
only 20% of Canadians read for their own enjoyment. Another sad stat is that 43% of Canadians are functionally illiterate.
Since I broke my ankle, my visitors have all brought reading material (they've also brought me flowers -- how lovely). So I'm thinking about all of the people who are restricted
physically like I am who can't disappear into the pages of a really
good book. It makes me realize how incredibly lucky I am.

This is a painting called "Girl Reading." The model was the
beautiful Claudia. It's a big painting 3 ft. x 4 ft., and I like the mood.

Have a reading-and-loving-it night

Sunday is for reading

Reading is one of my critical pleasures and I've just finished reading the best novel I've read in a long time.
Coffee and the Saturday Globe are essential Saturday and Sunday morning pleasures, and on Sunday I like to get in at least an hour of straight reading. Libby Creelman's The Darren Effect, is a Canadian novel missing the requisite incest and sheer despair. True she
deals with grief and loss, but also gives us love and redemption. It's set on the east coast and is amazing in its honest depiction of feeling, and how women think. Most novels about women seem to miss the point for me. Creelman is that rare bird, an exquisite writer of moving prose. Now I'm reading The Dissident, by Nell Freudenberger -- a New York Times, Notable Book. It's
about Yuan Zhao, a Chinese performance artist, who accepts an artist in residence position at a private girl's school in
Los Angeles. I think it's going to be good. I know that if Fiona could read, she
would. Meanwhile she just likes being a fashion model.

Have a great reading day.