Off we cast our impatient and uncaring little saying for Cervantes. Whatever else one might say about him, he could turn a phrase and continue to turn phrases. Perhaps it would be inaccurate to call the Don Quixote author a “literary Energizer Bunny” although the bulk of the classic work suggests he kept going and going and going …
I have never been able to finish Don Quixote. I don’t really know why. Maybe it’s reader’s block. Perhaps some books are meant to be read and some aren’t. Although, that’s skirting way too far out on the edge of profundity for me. But it seems like every time I try to read the book something distracts me and I will put the book down only to pick it up for a few pages in a couple of years.
My copy of Don Quixote belonged to my maternal grandmother, so I really don’t know when the English version that I possess was actually printed. But even though I have this mental force preventing me from my impossible quest I can, nonetheless, praise the very construction of this book.
Yes my friends my copy is, in the words of The Commodores, built like a “brick … house.” Which as many of you probably know, the song was referring to the saying that a particular woman is “built like a brick s—house.” I really don’t know how the saying is all that flattering to a woman, but maybe I’m not applying my limited geometric skills. Nevertheless, a brick outhouse is no doubt sturdy and the same can be said for my own copy of Don Quixote. There’s no telling how many bugs I’ve slain with it. So even though I can’t bring myself to finish it, its very existence on my bookshelf is of immeasurable worth.
Enough about that. When is the last time you heard Cervantes and The Commodores discussed in the same context? Never?
Mighty, mighty, just letting it all hang out …