arc of time

one thing i can say for sure in life after much research is this: if something is widely considered a “classic” there is probably a good reason. most of you know that i am a bit of an ornery kid and generally enjoy disliking things the masses like, especially if it is considered “deep” “artsy” or “hip” (see aronofsky, darren).

however, when it comes to literature, time and again, the adage is borne out. if it’s a classic, there is probably a reason.

the james hervey betterment project has been in full swing and since i got my library card i have thrown down both dostoyevsky’s “the brother’s karamazov,” and charlotte brontë’s “jane eyre.” amazing. both of them. books every one shoule read and books i am still amazed it took me this long to read.

so i am going to conitnue. like i said, if it’s a classic there is probably a reason (except “platoon,” but that’s another topic for another day.”

i first encountered e.o. wilson as an oft-cited researcher in the phenomenal books of harvard psychologist stephen pinker, who along with string theorist brian greene, i consider to be the most efficient popular writer of difficult scientific concepts. i love all of pinker’s books and he certainly got me interested in the idea of someday reading e.o. wilson.

perhaps i should have started with sociobilogy but instead i had just read a wired article about the influence of “hive” research in business and it specifically called out wilson’s classic work the ants.

so i immediately filled out the interlibrary loan form and got it here.

and it without a doubt one of the most difficult things i have ever tried to read. it is complicated, intricate and fascinating. everything one could ever care to know about ants is in this book.

i think i am going to feel tremendously educated when i finish.

it is the greatest things ever. having an afpl card and access to interlibrary loan is pretty much like having a free amazon.com with very slow shipping.

i am just overly excited because i just got a call from the afpl letting me know that my copy of e.o. wilson’s masterpiece of biology, the ants has arrived. i have been waiting patiently now.

if you, btw, are not cheap like me, feel free to click the link and purchase it for yourself

one of my major goals this year has been to seriously reduce the cost of operating the enterprise that is me – both in terms of the money i spend, but also the energy i use.

of course, i love to read, and this presents a bit of a problem because books can be expensive. i have been wanting to read the third volume in n.t.wrights christian origins and the question of god series, the resurrection of the son of god. it retails for around $23 though, which while it may not sound like a lot, when you are trying to run as low-cost of a budget as i am, is pretty substantial.

so last month i got a library card to the atlanta-fulton public library. i haven’t had a library card since i graduated high school.

anyway, afpl didn’t have the book i was looking for, so instead i picked up walter brueggeman’s excellent an introduction to the old testament: the canon and christian imagination which has been keeping me entertained for weeks.

anyway, i was getting to the end of it, and i really want to read the n.t. wright book, so i went on afpl’s web site and found an online form for inter-library loan. i filled it out and submitted.

this weekend i got a call that my book was here and today i headed over to the east atlanta branch to pick up a copy, courtesy of the library at shorter college.

so now i will be happy and content reading my library book on the bus

total cost – $0.

p.s. – i just read the penultimate sentence of this post and realized i could be the most weirdest republican on the planet.

updates will probably be spotty for the next week. the entire family is decamping to aruba for our annual pilgrimage, including megan for the first time. squib, aunt n and uncle c are going to be there at the same time too, so it should be quite a time.

i am flying american airlines for the first time in ages, and i have to say that i am pleasantly surprised. i am in 17c on a 737 and there is more leg room here than on a delta plane of similar configuration by an order of magnitude. one other thing i noted in a tweet this morning from hartsfield is that this flight has to be dubbed “the honeymoon express” for all of the couples that are headed to beaches that are on it.

anyway, with some extra time on my hands, i figured what the hell, why not work on a picks of the week? granted i am running on less than 5 hours of sleep so who knows how the quality of these reivews will be, but i am going to give it a whirl.

i am making my way to miami for my connection and as usual whenever i am thinking of miami the counting crows tune miam from hard candypops in to my head, so i threw it on as soon as we passed 10k feet – both the album version and the live version from the new amsterdam live album (which, i believe does a good job of capturing just how amazing a live band the crows are.

so the albumnew amsterdam: live at heineken music hall is my cd pick of the week this week. the counting crows are my favorite band and they truly shine live. i have written before about there live shows and nothing really compares to them (with the perhaps exception of sufjan stevens.)

the other great thing about this album is an incredible bonus track live version of the song “the blues run the game.” – it would be the mp3 pick if it was available, but alas it is a bonus track. it is a true rarity to hear this live – i was lucky enough one time, at the gwu smith center in washington dc. really other than the fact that raining in baltimore, a murder of one and mrs. potter’s lullaby are missing and the unfortunate goodnight l.a. is included. this could be close to the perfect crows set.

so for the mp3 download, i say go with the live version of miami and see what you think.

as for a dvd i would once again like to recommend something from the afi list but megan and i are STILL stuck on bringing up baby so i have nothing new to report there.

instead, i am going to pick a move that i consider to be one of the more underrated movies of all time. director john boorman’s hope and glory had the unfortunate luck to come out the same year as the last emperor, which stole just about all the glory that year (wow, no pun intended), as well as all the oscars.

hope and glory is, however, a beautifully shot, wonderfully written coming-of-age story that takes place in london during the blitz. all the classic themes of duty, sacrifice, family and honor are given treatment like one doesn’t see anymore.

i’d love to write more, but frankly, i haven’t seen the movie in ages and for some reason it was just the one that popped into my head to recommend to you this morning. i do remember thinking on many occasions that the movie never got the credit it deserved.

how about we all get it and then we can come back to it later?

and hey, the american airlines inflight magazine has a feature on denise richards; i could have made wild things my potw.

right now i am rereading j. maarten troost’s brilliant travelouge the sex lives of cannibals: adrift in the equatorial pacific and i have to go ahead an put it out there as this week’s read. i picked this one up in an airport somewhere when i had run out of reading material (i similarly discovered the strange case of the dog at midnight, another of my favorite books) and i think i read the length of it on one transatlantic flight.

the first thing i love about the book is that it is written about one of the most remote but populated places in the world, the atoll of tarawa in the island nation of kiribati.

of course, the other fun part of troost’s recounting of his year on tarawa is that he has absolutely NOTHING to do. he goes there following his girlfriend, who takes a job working with an ngo and basically spends his time just hanging around.

it really is hilarious. the place is so alien that i just end up in shock reading it. and troost has a real gift for describing it just brilliantly, with the proper mixture of description, irony and incredulity.

check it out. very good and very funny.

as always you can see all of my past potw’s at the picks of the week a-store (hint – you can buy them too)

by the way, no longer wanting a laptop with no word processor available offline ( i use google docs most of the time,) and not wanting to maintain a perfectly microsoft-free laptop i have been firing upopenoffice.org writer and using it write off-line posts, like this one. love it.