-- Imagine listening to "The Book I Read" by the Talking Heads as you read this. It was here, but I removed it to free up some of my limited space for sound files. --
Probably the last thing in the world I need to do is start another book, but I picked up the Talking Heads biography This Must Be the Place at this fantastic book store in Wolfville on the weekend and now I can't put it down. The guy's writing took some getting used to; actually, at first I thought he might be mildly retarded or something. His sentences are very short and he often says things that seem to be leading somewhere, but then moves immediately on to something else. But now I'm appreciating that I never have to spend a lot of time on stories I've already heard. And the unpredictability is quite exhilerating.
Actually, I just started another book, too. I think I'm in the middle of about twenty-five books right now. This one was loaned to me by my boss so that I might have my mind expanded. It's a grocery store piece of trash by Michael Crichton, of Jurassic Park fame, in which bio-terrorists use people's ("unfounded") fears about the unsustainable nature of our culture to wreak some sort of havoc or other. Even though it's a novel, it's all full of footnotes and lecturing about the "facts" on global warming, or rather the lack thereof. Mr. Chrichton believes we're all fools for worrying about what we are doing to the earth, as people have been worrying about that for centuries and nothing has happened yet. What is with this new use of the novel to espouse crackpot conspiracy theories? It's pretty annoying.
If he either a) didn't have such a history of embarassing misunderstandings when it comes to science, or b) could write, I might be able to get into the book on some level. Instead, I have to slog through many many pages of truly awful prose so I can talk informedly about the global warming conspiracy with my boss. At least it's really easy to read. You can skip every second sentence and not miss anything.
- Andrew
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4 comments:
Wow, is that "Book I Read" by Talking Heads...you sure tied that whole blog together! Dana
Speaking of books, do you still have those books you had when you were a little kid that taught you how to draw? I can picture them in my head, but can't think who wrote them. Just wondering.
Eri.
I just remembered Er...Ed Emberly...wasn't it? Dana
Yeah, Ed Emberley. Those were great. I'm not sure if M&D still have them somewhere. "Make a World" was the best one, where he showed you how to draw a simple, iconic version of pretty much everything that exists. Hmmm... maybe that's how we got so good at Pictionary.
- Andrew
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