The Flood

antediluvian

I think this word is a super fun.
ante-means before
diluv-means wash away
So, 'antediluvian means' "before the flood"--the biblical one.



I was reading an email from Oprah's Book Club, and after clicking on a few links found myself reading an article by Jodi Picoult. I have heard of her but haven't read any of her books, now, however, after reading her thoughts on the reader's relationship with the text and seeing a few of the books she recommends (and why she likes them) I may read one of hers in the near future.
This is part of what she had to say (The dark blue bits are the bits I liked the most, and can be a good lead in to discussing with students their ever present questions about why; why are we reading this?):

I think we have stories because they help us understand who we are. But there's a tendency to assume that a story must be ingested in a certain way, that it must mean one thing. So readers are always trying to ferret out the truth. I want to argue that this idea is a raging and utter lie. The reader brings as much to the book as the writer does: You're bringing your past, you're bringing your thoughts, you're bringing your future.

It's my job as a writer to tell you a story that's going to take you away from whatever you're doing—your laundry, your kids, whatever—but that, to me, is the least important part. When I sit down to write a book, my goal is to make you ask yourself, "Why are my opinions what they are?" I'm not going to make you change them necessarily. You might if I've done a good job, but at the very least, you're going to ask yourself where you stand on a given issue. To me, the mark of a great book is that it can move a variety of people, even though each person is connecting in a different way. The purpose of a story is to be a crowbar that slides under your skin and, with luck, cracks your mind wide open.
http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/Jodi-Picoults-Books-That-Made-a-Difference