Quite an Odyssey

So I finished reading 2001: A Space Odyssey and I actually really enjoyed it. I was expecting to just make my way through it because it was on the list of classic books I wanted to read, but I was surprised at how interesting it really was. The beginning starts with "ancient man" through the evolutionary view. I found their theory that aliens gave the ape-men their leg up by showing them how to become men and leave the ape behind. For a while I wondered why that was even part of the storyline because it really didn't seem to fit, but it all comes together in the end. It was also really interesting to see what someone in 1968 thought life would be like in the year 2001, since I know what life actually was like in 2001! I was amazed at how much he had right, like some people living in space stations floating in space. However, the moon is not colonized and no one can just travel back and forth to locations throughout space. The thing I got the biggest kick out of was a section toward the beginning of the book. I thought that Ted Turner and Al Gore must have gotten their thought manuals straight out of the beginning of this book! Check out this section:

As long as he could remember, it had been not a "situation" so much as a
permanent crisis. Since the 1970's, the world had been dominated by two
problems which, ironically, tended to cancel each other out.

Though birth control was cheap, reliable, and endorsed by all the main
religions, it had come too late; the population of he world was now six billion -
a third of them in the Chinese Empire. Laws had even been passed in some
authoritarian societies limiting families to two children, but their enforcement
had proved impracticable. As a result, food was short in every country;
even the United States had meatless days, and widespread famine was predicted
within fifteen years, despite heroic efforts to farm the sea and to develop
synthetic food.

That just cracks me up! You know, he wasn't too far off on the total population, and China is only not a third of the worlds population because or their policy limiting families to one child only. That amazed me a bit!

Anyway, the ending was a bit weird for me, but still I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone.

On another note, I originally started choosing the books I am reading based on lists of what is expected knowledge for a person entering a master's program in a literature field. I was thinking about a master's degree in a literature field because it would be so very marketable. However, every time I get a chance to work with children's literature, I realize that it is my first passion, over British or American literature. My children's literature class was the class I enjoyed most in my undergraduate studies. I think that it would be short-sighted of me to pursue a degree that wasn't my primary passion. I didn't want to say I would get my master's in children's literature, because many colleges do not have a children's literature professor, and the ones that do usually only have one. But, I could also work for a publisher or try my hand at writing. And really, it is going to be so long before I can even pursue another degree that it seems ridiculous to consider it now. The long and the short of it is that I am going to add classic children's literature to my list. I am going to start by reading every Newberry Award winning book since the first year it was established. I think I will enjoy that immensely and then whatever way I decide to go years and years from now, I will be prepared. I am almost done with my next book already, so I need to head back to the library for my next installment...