Microsoft Office 2007 on Demand - Fascinating stuff. Microsoft's innovation post-Vista, is to add even more steps, and convolute the interface even more. This comes from someone's whose first step after an OS upgrade since WIN98SE is to look for the classical view display. I honestly hate Vista. There is no reason for an operating system to require 2 gigs of memory, just achieve minimally acceptable performance.
Storm World by Chris Mooney. Mooney is a New Orleans native. He also wrote "The Republican War on Science" - whose primary virtue wasn't necessarily the breaking of new ground in exposing politicized science policies, but putting it all together in one place and documenting the hell out of it, from soup to nuts. Storm World is great, it's about all the infighting that goes into the modeling of tropical weather, and the continuing debate on global warming: basically, the data guys vs. the model guys, going back to sea-farers of yore to the present day.
Scientists Confront Intelligent Design and Creationism Andrew J. Petto and and Aurie R. Godfrey. A collection of articles rebutting Creationist and ID thought.
Rooms of Our Own Susan Gubar. You may remember Susan from such exciting titles as "Madwoman in the Attic" and as co-editor of the "Norton Anthology of Literature by Women." What? Yeah, I took a bunch of WGS classes. Suck my left one. She's an authoritative author... I don't have to fucking impress you.
Books Read Recently: We Got the Neutron Bomb Mark Spitz. Less shocking than a Brett Easton Ellis Novel. And I'm not sure how he conducted the interviews, but it's fucking hilarious to read one scene person's take on something or someone, like Cherie from the Runaways, only to have 2 or 3 interviewees contradict whatever the first person had just sworn to. Also the first time I have seen the phrase "Dog Cunt" in print. Mostly Harmless, Mostly Lame My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist, I re-read this every couple of years Running with Scissors - This is a fucking amazing memoir if you're not squeamish, and can deal with pretty graphic - yet humorously recounted - descriptions of homosexual rape. I was uncomfortable with it, too. But once you realize that the narrator - the rapee - was somewhat down with it, you can sort of compartmentalize it. God, A Failed Theory - not recommended
That new one by Billy Collins, eh The Very Small Home: Japanese Ideas for Living Well in Very Small Space - This was a lot of fun.
josh [email] said at 12:25 PM 08-16-2007: a bunch of richard corben graphic novels
devil in a blue dress
black summer
spycatcher by paul greengrass and peter wright
kara [email] said at 2:20 PM 08-16-2007:
I was a fan of Lynn Perils last book, "Pink Think," and so far I've found this follow up to be more scholarly but equally engaging... The research is impressive, the cultural artifacts are interesting, and her tone is not overly urgent and "feminist."
So far it's inspiring me to pick back up on my study of "teens." I'm also looking forward to her next book, whatever it may be. I just think that the information she pulls together is always really interesting and fun to read.
kara [email] said at 3:22 PM 08-16-2007: yes... it covers over 40 of the varieties, as well as history, cultivation information (for indoor and out) and recipes.
kiche [email] said at 4:10 PM 08-16-2007: wolves in sheep's clothing by stephen marshall - i'm finishing this up. this is a really good book. the descriptions i've read of it don't do it justice. what this book is marketed as is being about "analyzing liberals who are actually no different than conservatives". this is actually only a small part of what it's about. the author goes and interviews a bunch of notable left wingers who supported invading iraq. he then takes on a deeper analysis of american history and politics. for instance, are you aware that nancy pelosi has a daughter who made a puff piece documentary about bush and claims there's not a whole lot of difference between his politics and her mother's?
kalpa imperial by anglica gorodischer - this book is actually a let down. i'm about two thirds of the way through it. i picked this up at blue stocking books because the blurb on the back compared the writer to franz kafka, jorge luis borges and italo calvino. the author is argentinian, like borges, and contemporary, unlike borges. the book is about a sprawling ancient empire that never existed. it seems like it was inspired by borges' tlon, uqbar, orbus tertius and seems almost like a volume in that story about an imaginary world. it is a bunch of unconnected stories that creates an impression of this nonexistent empire. sort of like what calvino did with invisible cities which i read right before this and will discuss further below.
invisible cities by italo calvino - is this really a novel? it's not really poetry. this book is brief descriptions of various (fictional) cities by marco polo to kublai kahn. these descriptions are intermittently broken up by philosophical discussions between the khan and polo about the nature of cities, reality and life. the book is quite short and becomes increasingly symbolic as it goes on. it came out in 1972 and is very emblematic of the time. i liked it a lot, and want to check out more of this guy's stuff.
understanding comics by scott mccloud - this was really interesting. it sounds boring, a comic book about comics; but he pulls it off and i learned a lot about what makes comics tic. more of a look at how the art of comics work and what exactly they are than how they are made.
never let me go by kazuo ishiguro - i will probably start reading this sometime next week. i've read good things about it. has anyone hear read it?
lost girls by alan moore and melinda gebbie - i have this on my computer and have been meaning to start reading it for a while now. i can see it being really good, but i worry that it will be really bad.
also, since we are talking about books, there is this. ::shudder::
ed [email] said at 5:27 PM 08-16-2007: There is no reason for an operating system to require 2 gigs of memory, just achieve minimally acceptable performance.
A-focking-men, and this is why I will never "upgrade" to Vista from XP Pro.
What I'm reading?
The obvious one, which most folks will roll their eyes at.
And I've begun re-re-re(ad nauseum) reading the Thomas Covenant books, by Stephen R. Donaldson. I only have the first six books, so I can't attest to the quality of the ones that happened after... well, I won't spoil it.
brandon [email] said at 8:49 PM 08-16-2007: Last year, I read shelves of graphic novels, and didn't get much out of it. Then, I read understanding comics earlier this year. It really helped me... understand comics. I recommend it too. He just published a new one, "Making Comics" that I want to pick up.
I read Invisible Cities in college, because I heard someone read the passage about the city suspended over a great chasm, and thought it sounded interesting. I don't remember if I finished it though. I'd probably appreciate it more now.
Read DeLillo's "Falling Man" earlier this year, that didn't really do it for me.
Salon endorsed the Ishiguro book way back, I've never gotten around to reading it though.
I love these posts, because I always come away with about 10 books I'm going to read.
kiche [email] said at 10:24 AM 08-17-2007: you should read from hell by alan moore & eddie campbell. along with understanding comics, this is one of the best graphic novels i have ever read. a couple of years back hollywood made a movie adaptation of this in which they took the title and came up with an entirely new plot and characters with loosely the same premise. well, very loosely the same premise.
you should also pick up invisible cities again. it'd probably take you a little over an hour to read. maybe less.
the falling man sounds kind of dumb; but it may be a good book and more time just needs to pass from 9/11 for me to see it.
yeah, i know salon endorsed never let me go, i want to read it anyway. they also endorsed the yiddish policemen's union by michael chabon, which sounds hokey but interesting.
here is an online copy of that borges short story i mentioned above, tlon, uqbar, orbis tertius. you can read it there in english or the original spanish.
