What I'm Reading

How many books can you read at one time?

Since I was a child, I have had a habit, be it good or bad, of reading several books at once. My excuse for this is that I want to read multiple genres, and while I can sit and read (or read while on the stepper) fiction for hours, some other genres take a little more dedication and brain power.

And then there are the books that I've inherited, had recommended, or been asked to review.

So, with those excuses, I'll share with you what I'm reading right now. 

First, my just for the joy of it fiction: I just finished "The Darwin Variant," by Kenneth Johnson. The premise is that a comet is going to hit earth, and a group of governments decide the only solution is to hit it with nukes and break it apart. They're last-minute-successful, and the only damage is a smallish arc of fragments that hits in Georgia, USA. But that's just the beginning of a story told from about 20 points of view, varying from a dull Georgia backwoods boy to a genius researcher to an autistic savant and a sweet teen girl.

Once that was finished, I delved into a Ken Follet - "The Evening and the Morning." 

On my bookshelf I had found a non-fiction, a scientific exploration written way back in 1982. I'm always intrigued by science from the point of view of a decade or more ago - wondering how what they speculated panned out over time. The book is "The Turning Point: Science, Society and The Rising Culture," by Fritjof Capra. The author also wrote "The Tao of Physics," which will give you some insight into his turn of mind. But he essentially rejects Cartesian science, or the mechanistic view of what is (and is not). He writes, "...in contrast to the mechanistic Cartesian view of the world, the world view emerging from modern physics can be characterised by words like organic, wholistic and ecological. It might also be called a systems view..." The act of observation, he writes, is part of what is observed. The two are not separable. Needless to say, I can only read a chapter or so and then have to think - and there are many underlines, notes, and exclamation points in the margins.

For a little light reading - and the authors do, indeed, have fun with their subject(s) - I pulled a 1987 compendium called "An Incomplete Education" from the shelf, written by Judy Jones and William Wilson. They go through all the major areas of a liberal education, and tell you what you should know about each. American Studies, Art History, Literature, Film, Music, Philosophy, Psychology and more. Each is treated somewhat irreverently, but given the nearly 40 year passage of time since the book was written, it's amusing to read what was considered important as it relates to what is part of a liberal arts education today.

Then for a little history, I'm reading a chapter or so a day of a wonderful examination of "How The Barbarian Invasions Shaped The Modern World," by Thomas J. Craughwell. He looks into the Vikings, Vandals, Huns, Mongols, Goths and Tartars (sounds like a bunch of band names...) and how their tearing apart (and to an extent carrying away with them) the classical world shaped a new, warring, restless and inventive world that carried us to the world we know now.

Because I want to laugh, I indulge in a short chapter from Rod Green's "The Wicked Wit of Scotland," and to enjoy a bit of political/propaganda, I'm reading "Hollywood Propaganda," by Mark Dice. Whether you agree with his take on the various movies and popular books and press, it's hard to dispute his assertion that these art forms do, in fact, influence us both directly, and indirectly - from the way we speak, to our fashion sense, to our sympathies and antipathies.

Finally, I found a treasure among my mom's old, leather and cloth-bound books. This particular book is a novel, simple and sweet with titled chapters. "Hempfield" by David Grayson was published in 1915, and is a small book with large typeface, and when I was just a few pages in, I looked at an inscription I'd overlooked when I first opened the book. And it was the reason I treasure old books. 

A little Santa sticker was attached to one page, and on the title page was an inscription:

12/25/15 (as in 1915)
To Auntie
From
Jim

And Jim, I believe, would have been my grand-dad.