BOOKS AND MOVIES

What will the genius and I watch on TV now that the college baseball world series is over and the football season hasn't started yet? We just can't seem to get together anymore on what we like to watch.

We recently looked at the movie Gran Torino, which I thought I would really like. But the language was more than I could bear, and there was definitely too much violence. Now I realize the violent scenes were short and far apart, but I can't stand ANY, especially when torture is involved. The only way I can get through a movie like that is to be on the computer or read a book the same time it's going on so I don't get too emotionally involved.

And therein lies the difference between the genius and me. He can watch exciting, suspenseful, even violent movies and really enjoy them, whereas I get so drawn into the characters and their lives that I can hardly stand anything painful to occur to them. I get these horrible images in my mind and they don't go away. And sleep is impossible without medical help after I watch.

He and I are the same way with books. He is now reading some of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's books, describing the Siberian work camps, etc. I know he is a great writer and very influential in the fall of communism in Russia, but I'm content to read about him and leave his books to others. I guess I'm just a wimp but after all these years of my love affair with reading, I know what I like: feel good stories with happy endings. Just give me Jane Austen or Jan Karon and I'm fine.

I'll leave the violence and gore and misery to the macho types!