A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man’s mind can get both provocation and privacy. ~Edward P. Morgan
What Kind of a Reader are You?
The Heron, one of the Nazca Lines, which is a geoglyph. — Wikipedia Photo
When I read fiction, I want good writing, and the characters, the setting, and the plot to engage me fully – and if I come across a word whose meaning stumps me, I usually just give it my guess and move on.
But when I read non-fiction, I savor the words, and quickly turn to a dictionary – albeit these days an online one instead of the thick book I always had at the ready before the days of the Internet – when an unfamiliar word or name pops up.
Two popped up this morning, the first – geoglyphs – as I was reading Sara Wheeler’s “Travels in a Thin Country: A journey through Chile.”
Now I know what petroglyphs are but I had never heard the term geoglyphs, which I found in this sentence: “We passed geoglyphs of men and animals, carved into the hillsides by some wandering tribe, centuries before the accursed Spaniards appeared on the continent.”
The sentence itself gave me a clue about the meaning, but I wanted more specifics. And here’s what I found: Geoglyphs are large works of art made from stones or dirt that are arranged in a landscape. Examples given of geoglyphs were the Nazca Lines in Peru and the Big Horn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming, which I recently blogged about for American Profile’s online presence — http://blogs.americanprofile.com/big-horn-medicine-wheel/ — without using the term.
My wondering-wandering mind was satisfied with the answer and went back to reading the travel book.
Later in the morning, as I catching up on my e-mail and reading one of the blogs to which I’m subscribed, I came across an unknown name. The author mentioned the artist Naum Gabo. I had never heard of him, and so I again turned to the Internet — Honesty, I don’t know how I survived before this information highway came into being.
Naum Gabo, I learned, was born Naum Neemia Pevsner in Russia in 1890. He changed his name to Gabo, and is best known as a sculpture involved in the constructivism movement and as a pioneer in kinetic art. Perhaps you’ve heard of him – but I hadn’t. And I found the Wikipedia short biography of his life fascinating.
So what stops you in your tracks when you’re reading?
Bean’s Pat: Failure is not an option http://tinyurl.com/lhltoea Something to keep in mind.
Pat Bean's blog 
nice post! do you think that crop circles would fall under the ‘geoglyph’ category?!
I thought about that Playa. But probably not because they’re not permanent.
What stops me in my tracks when I am reading is an idea or a concept that connects on a deep level to the ideas that drive me or give meaning to my life. I know this when something flutters inside of me and often, I reach for a pencil or a highlighter to mark the words so that later, I may transcribe them elsewhere or simply return to the page to savor them. This could be a line from a poem, something a character does or says, or lines from a nonfiction book like the one I read this morning from Angeles Arrien’s Living in Gratitude: Gratitude is essentially the recognition of the unearned increments of value in one’s experience-the acknowledgement of the positive things that come our way that we did not actively work toward or ask for.
I have really grown to love the internet: to search for words, look up places, and even read more about a historical character in a book I am reading.
Although we sometimes have to separate the chaff from the wheat, the Internet is a truly amazing classroom for those of us who feel a day is incomplete without learning something new. Thanks for commenting Colline.
I clicked on the post to find out what a ‘Naum Gabo’ is, I had no idea the entire post itself would be about clicking, or googling, to find out what unfamiliar things are. Good one, Pat! I love just about anything which leads to me to other things…and other things…and other things.
Unfamiliar words stop me. But I make a note of them and look them up later when I’m at a good stopping point. If I’m caught up in the story, I don’t want to stop the flow.