Rhet Comp and Everything Else

Ms. Bryanna Tidmarsh has challenged me to a 15 book, 15 lbs. goal by August 1st. Our goal is therefore to read 15 books and lose 15 lbs. Therefore I’ve searched around my room for books I want to read as a part of this challenge. Here is a list of all of them:

1. The Divine Comedy: Inferno [Dante Alighieri]

2. The Divine Comedy: Purgatorio [Dante Alighieri]

3. The Divine Comedy: Paradiso [Dante Alighieri]

4-8. The Torah (Yes, Biblical books count. And they’re no short order either.) [Moses, duh!]

9. A Mercy [Toni Morrison]

10-12. The Snopes Trilogy [William Faulkner]

13. The Aeneid [Virgil]

14. The Odyssey [Homer]

15. Portnoy’s Complaint [Philip Roth]

I have just ordered my copy of Inferno, so wish me luck. The challenge officially starts in 15 minutes: June 1, 2011. I hope we both not only meet our goals, but exceed them!

A little more than a month and I will be residing in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The lease on my new apartment begins on July 1st and I’ll be moving in shortly after that. It’s all so strange and yet so reassuring to my being that I will be on my own working towards my future. I can only hope that Hashem watches over me as well as my family and friends. I will strive to live a life of Torah and peace, and to continue my Judaic studies in a city with practically no Jewish community in it. Maybe Hasem’s purpose for me there is to help reinforce whatever community might be there, or yet begin a new and attempt to help the Jewish community reconnect with it’s religious and cultural roots. Only time will tell. Baruch Hashem.