By Elaine Carlson

The day after New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announces her Stay In Place Directive I decided I would keep busy by reading. For my first book I picked up Down and Out In Paris and London. It was the first book Eric Blair wrote under the pen name George Orwell. I got it a long time ago and I was sure this period of Social Distancing would be a good time to read it.

I am not sure if the book is a memoir or a novel. In the first part the narrator is living in the poor section of Paris and working as a dish washer in a fancy restaurant. Blair was a British writer who once lived in the poor section of Paris while working as a dishwasher in a fancy restaurant.

That narrator starts out by describing the landlady at the seedy hotel where he is staying. He then proceeds to tell about many of the people he meets. "On Saturday nights about a quarter of the male population of the quarter was drunk." And, "I am trying to describe the people in our quarter not for the mere curiosity, but because they are all part of the story."

Near the beginning one man tells him how he stole money from his brother and uses the cash to go to a brothel. He is not content to snuggle under the sheets and have sex with the hooker he assumes is "a young peasant girl." Instead in exchange for his payment he wants to rape her.

When he grabbed her "she tried to elude me, but I seized her by the throat. … tight!" He pulled her out of the bed and threw her on the floor. He goes on, "More and more savagely I renewed the attack. Again and again the girl tried to escape; she cried out for mercy anew, but I laughed at her." He boasted, "That was Love. That was the happiest day of my life."

I felt guilty while I was reading --- as if the fact of reading means I approve of that man's actions. It is hard for me to figure how Blair thinks this description of the pathology of an evil person is an essential "part of the story." I don't throw the book away but I decide to stop reading it. I am sure there are other books I would prefer to read in this period of Social Isolation.

I pull off one of my shelves Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food by Jeff Porter. I start out by reading its descriptions of Baking Powder and Baking Soda. It was interesting to learn how each works and the differences between them.

I have fun looking at the recipes --- one for Chocolate Mousse looks like one I would like to make. But then I see a recipe for Brownies in an Orange. And it is what I think it is --- the text and accompanying pictures tells how to slice the top off of the orange and to cut out the pulp before putting the brownie batter into the newly carved bowl. I don't see how all of that effort would lead to an improved brownie.

After that first week I move on to regular books. I read five memoirs on growing up religious --- three in a Jehovah Witness and two in Mormon families. And I read two novels.

I am glad to see that the library has developed curb side service. So I order a biography of Thomas Jefferson and East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I want to read about Sally Hennings and I think it would be nice to read a classic.

I think it is good that this down time has given me a chance to get a lot of reading done but still I look forward to things getting back to normal and that this pandemic is over.