Trials & tribulations of the reader

I was supposed to do jury duty today on the grand jury, so last night I spent some time picking out a good book to take with me (I’ve always heard you should take something to read.)

I discovered it was hard to pick a good book! I didn’t want to read trash (no Danielle Steel), but I didn’t want to look like a complete weirdo (no Boccaccio’s Decameron, and yes, I looked at it!) I wanted something that looked intelligent and truth-seeking. I liked the idea of Telling the Truth About History, but I didn’t want to read it! I also wanted something that would be light enough to be readable in less than ideal reading conditions. I wasn’t sure about Documents of American Indian Policy or Andrew Jackson vs. Henry Clay. How about Lies My Teacher Told Me? Something anti-establishment would go over really well, right?

On the other side of the bookshelf, I didn’t want anything too hippie. I want to read How to Survive Without a Salary but I’m not sure how the average legal sort would take that. I almost chose Gene Logsdon’s Homesteading. But another criteria was that if it somehow accidentally got lost in the courthouse, I wouldn’t cry too much over it, and I really don’t want to lose that book!

I very nearly chose Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi, but I finally decided on the book about Man o’ War that I got for Christmas a year or two ago. I think it was a very neutral, smart but not in a weirdo way, interesting choice. And I do want to read it. I started last night, and so far it’s pretty interesting.

Oh, and I arrived at the courthouse, sat for 20 minutes and read a few pages, got sworn in and then told to go home. Thank you very much.

So now I have to go to work. What a drag!