Good Books

I have been hoping to find something new in literature that expands and enriches my world-view: not something new to the world, necessarily, but something new to me. When I travel alone on airplanes, I try--without being too annoying, I hope--to get suggestions on books that I would love, but never think to seek out. One fellow traveler, a geologist, suggested that I read Annals of the Former World, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on geology, written by a non-geologist (John McPhee). It took me months to read it. Geology, especially to the novice, is not like reading Grisham. But it was so rewarding in that it has permanently altered the way I look at the world.

Another recommendation came from my good friends, Dave and Ariane. Their favorite book (or, at least, Ariane's favorite) is Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. This novel won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction a few decades ago. Again, it wasn't a terrifically fast read. But this time I found myself reading slowly because, at times, each sentence seemed like poetry to me. I also didn't completely grasp where the book was taking me until a rewarding and eye-opening denouement. Years later, I still find myself reflecting on that book, even though I haven't yet re-read it.

Other books, like Catch-22, I find just laying around and decide to give them a shot. I hesitate a little to recommend these books because some people (heeding my recommendation) have struggled to get through them at all. Catch-22 has been particularly hard for people. The story and timeline are deliberately fuzzy, but I found that this lack of clarity ultimately contributed hugely to the impact of the point the author was trying to deliver.

While I enjoy the current popular books, I rarely have such a revelatory experience reading them. What books have similarly affected you in a profound way?

Incidentally, while reading Beyond the Hundredth Parallel: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West by Stegner, I was reminded of the excellent "Wilderness Letter" he wrote over forty years ago when this nation was beginning to struggle with the wilderness issue. It is worth a read.

Picasa

In my (seemingly) neverending quest to get you to use the same programs that I do, let me recommend that you use Picasa. (If you already use Picasa, a new updated version was just released.) By far, it is the best program for managing digital photos that I have tried. Very easy to use.

I use Picasa to

• upload pictures to my blog
• embed pictures (resized) with my email
• easily correct red-eye
• straighten my pictures (I tend to shoot a little crooked)
• prepare my photos for printing
• back up my pictures to CD/DVD

Best of all, it's completely free.


It can't un-blur Kirby, though.

Insanity illustrated

More Bagley cartoons here. (Thanks, Deb.)

Values insanity

It seems that our children's tender ears are being offended by the questions asked in the blood donor screening interview. Maybe we could just ask the prospective blood donor if he or she is morally clean, and leave it at that.

Read the story here.

It reminds me of my high school AP biology course, in which the teacher had to use the word condominium instead of condom. It was unfortunate for my pregnant friend across the aisle that he didn't have an equally creative way to explain that the rhythm method is not an effective way to avoid pregnancy.

Hero

Get the DVD. No, not that Hero, this one. One of the best movies I've seen in a while. (It will remind you of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but it's better.)

That is all.

Snow

The kids have been enjoying a couple of extra vacation days. (Brook not so much...) To top it all off, big winter storms always result in a big snow mountain in the middle of our cul-de-sac.

Growing up, we dreamed that they'd close school for snow. There were rumors that if there were 18 inches on the ground, school would automatically close. But it didn't happen until I was a senior in high school, and we didn't find out that day until we showed up to school. We figure that in Iowa they'd rather have to make up days at the end of the year than invest in a few snow plows.


Digging a hole through the snow mountain


Cheeks as red as the wall

It's the Year of the Rooster

I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but we celebrated anyway.


We caught a basketball game...


... and discovered how slick our kitchen floor can be.


Drew stayed up way past his bedtime...


... and tried to wake the neighbors.

Happy new year!