lookingland

i am on a reading kick (and apparently making up for a lack of posting for a while) ~ whoohoo!

but it's been nice to have time to read this afternoon since i'm in the reading "zone". my confession is that i'm a notoriously lazy reader. i read a lot in huge glurges and then avoid it like the plague the rest of the time.

welcome to the glurge ~ and here's one more for the

50bookchallenge:

no. 35 ~ Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft. published in 1860. this is a short (111 pages), almost unsentimental slave narrative published in England in which no one in America, North or South, gets off without a sound thrashing. a good depiction of how deep-seated prejudice was on both sides of the mason-dixon. a thoroughly engrossing tale of a married couple's trek to freedom with the woman disguised as a white man and the man playing the role of the gentleman's "boy". the conclusion of the book sums up the temperament of the agrieved writer: "In short, it is well known in England, if not all over the world, that the Americans, as a people, are notoriously mean and cruel towards all coloured persons, whether they are bond or free."

ellen craft was the daughter of a plantation owner and his
slave mistress. she managed to pass for white (and a man) in
order to escape with her slave husband in 1848.
working in a library is like setting loose an addict in a crack house. i've picked up several short novels (some tarkington) to take home tonight. i also have on the plate fairfax's Georgetown account and a book about West Point (1850-1861) ~ that ought to keep me busy for a while.

at this rate, it looks like i just may yet hit that 50-mark after all!

: D