CT Legislature draws to a close with unfinished work. Books I have and am reading.

In less that 48 hours the Connecticut legislature will adjourn as required by law, with much of their work still unfinished, including both the tax plan and the spending budget. I guess none of the Legislators mind coming back for a special session since they will be paid for the time they spend in the special session. I have always been surprised that the precedent which was common in Kentucky seems unknown in the northeast. When the statutory hour for ending the session drew near with the work incomplete it was common practice that the clocks in the legislative chambers were stopped so that officially midnight did not come until the work was complete.

What have you been reading lately? I am always interested in what is on other people’s reading list. I have recently completed The Children of Hurin, by J.R.R. Tolkien. The author has long since passed from this earth; his now aged son Christopher has pulled the book together from his father’s various writings, published and unpublished. I certainly enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as either The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I missed the Hobbits and Dwarves and Trolls; this book is concerned with the history of men in Middle Earth, along with the elves who did not make the great voyage to Valinor. There is one aged Dwarf remaining, but it is the later children of Iluvator (men) who are most involved in the conflict with the evil Morgoth and his armies of Orcs.

I also read a New York Times Bestseller, Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. Another of a number of books like The DaVinci Code that take their setting from legends of the Grail and alternate understandings of what the true Grail is. It is of course pure fiction set in Languedoc in southern France, but a very interesting page turner with an interesting theory to explain who were the heretics (variously known as Cathars, Bons Chetiens, or Albigensians) against whom the Pope declared a Crusade and who were the first objects of the inquisition.

I am now reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini whose first novel was the wonderfully popular The Kite Runner. I had printed out the coupon to buy the book at Borders Books and then failed to get there before the coupon expired. The next weekend in the Hartford Courant is an ad for a book signing by Hosseini at all places at BJ’s Wholesale Club. I am continually amazed at their selection of books, often including new releases and bestsellers, and the prices cannot be beat. Anyway I was enjoying the beginning of the book when we came to a new section labeled Book Two which picks up new characters 9 years later with no obvious relationship to the first story. I have gotten far enough to find the connection.