Reading is Fun!
During many my younger years, I was an avid pleasure reader. Hardy Boys and Goosebumps comprised much of the content. Then, as I went through middle and high school English, my love of reading seemed to have extinguished. Even throughout my college years, the flame was still out. Then, out of nowhere, it returned! Today I have a library card again, and I am usually mid-read of some book at some time. For years after my theory about this temporary absence in my reading-for-fun practice has been that all the book reports and other writings that were assigned to me in school killed my inherent love of the craft. Thinking about it now, perhaps I was too harsh. Perhaps my time in English classes just opened my eyes to other genres and styles of writing and inevitably to some I didn't like all that much. But then again there were those that I did enjoy. And even the reports that I look back at now with disdain may have actually disciplined me as a reader, honing my ability to encode and process the information that was being read and ultimately comprehend it. So, to my educational system, I say: thank you?
My current read has been "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America". After finishing 2/3 of it, I know why it once was a #1 New York Times Bestseller. Taking place during the last decade of the nineteenth century, "White City" chronicles the events leading up to and taking place during Chicago's 1893 World's Fair. In addition to it being a crime thriller that involves a smooth-talking, good looking sociopathic killer and his insatiable lust for killing young women....for profit, this book also invites the reader to witness a plethora of exhibits that were seen by people at the fair for the first time and today comprise objects we often use or enjoy in regularity. One such premiere was a mind-perplexing structure that consisted of a gigantic steel wheel that was propped up vertically on either side by two steel towers. Connected to the wheel were several train cars that could hold up to six people. Through steam power, the wheel would turn. The designer was a man by the name of Ferris. That's pretty cool.
Reading "White City" has been fun for a number of reasons, but discovering first glimpses at everyday modern appliances and objects of entertainment is particularly amazing to me. Material items aside, the fair also affected the power that labor unions now enjoy, sparked a new and improved emphasis on a strong police force, and opened a public's eyes to the benefits of proper sewage systems and water treatment technology. One of which - not getting cholera or diphtheria. Sweet! These new creations are indeed no minor aspects in the lives we live today. They are absolutely essential to us and our well-being. Today most people called that six-month long event the Chicago World's Fair. But it was also known as an exposition, which I think sounds more sophisticated. The fairs that I go to today are surely not up to snuff with what happened in 1893. Although they both share one thing: a shitload of horse manure!
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