Best Seller

I write you from a time that I still could. I've read enough of the dystopian future to know this too will possibly get shut down. Freedom of press, freedom of speech, freedom in general is about to go underground. Today George Orwell's novel 1984 became a #1 best seller. Everyone wants to be prepared for the propaganda machine. For the double talk (Newspeak in the novel), for the authorities to tell us to deny the things we see with our eyes. This dystopian present is for the birds though. If I had my choice of fiction to live in it would be the Star Trek one where we've all learned to get along and are exploring space having philosophical discussions about interfering in under-developed cultures... sadly here we are. Hey Big Brother... here's my blog.

Things that annoy me

In no particular order;
1. The phrase "hump-day"

2. Bookshelves organized by color... sure you can find the blue books, but where's the psychology section?  I'm sorry do you Read those books or are they just decorative?  Are you four?

3. "Clean" versions of albums.

Explicit; adj. 1.a Fully and clearly expressed, leaving nothing implied. b. Fully and clearly defined and formulated. 2. Forthright and unreserved in expression.

If it's art and if it's important then Fully and clearly express it!

4. People who call their pets their "children"

 I'm sorry... Just NO.

Sterling Library

My new University has some amazing facilities... this is one of the libraries.

It has cloisters, the check out desk is an altar and all of the windows feature authors and characters from books.

Not so shabby, eh?

Caprial's Desserts

I'd like to offer a quick endorsement for this book;

Caprial's recipes have butter and sugar and take the long way to make... but they are well written and never lead me astray. Just look at this cobbler;

It's like magic.

Mars

"The red world and the blue are brothers. They were born together in the seething maelstrom of dust and gas spinning out from the heart of the vast cloud that was to become Father Sun. 


For uncountable time each world was engulfed in endless violence. Monsters roared down out of the sky, pounding the worlds mercilessly in a holocaust of terrible explosions.  Under such awesome bombardment there could be no solid ground; the rocks themselves were liquid bubbling magma as the fiery rain from the sky went on and on, blotting out the radiance of the newly bright Father Sun with steaming clouds that covered each world from pole to pole"   

                    --Ben Bova, Mars

Are you in love yet?  I am only half way through this novel (the first Ben Bova I have read).  It is slow, methodic and about as close to Pablo Neruda I have seen in the English language. It's one of those books that I can read a paragraph like the one above and I want to look up and find someone to share it with so that I can ask; "did you see that!?" It's this pulsing story that makes you wonder what is going to happen next, it makes you curse the fact that the book must be put down to sleep or to work or other such mundane things.  So I guess the point of this post is... I recommend this book.

Um...

Should I be worried about how many fictional history books are included in this search?

Choosing travel companions

It’s too soon to pack.  I am packing in my head.  Checklists scroll through… passport, check. Netbook, check.  Power cords, check.  Sweater, shirts, jeans (which jeans?) shoes (which shoes)… and more importantly what books shall I read on the plane?  Today I decided on books, all unread from my bookshelf.  I have three that I chose for different reasons.  I wonder if you can guess any of them from their beginnings…

1. It was on a Sunday morning in the loveliest part of the spring. Georg Bendemann, a young merchant sat in his room on the second floor of one of the low, lightly built houses that extend along the river in a long line, differing, if at all, only in height and coloration.

2.”We need you to kill a man.”

This stranger glanced nervously around us. I feel that a crowded restaurant is no place for such talk as a high noise level gives only limited privacy.

3. They found the body in a tuft of floating forest a half-day’s swim from ringsol six.  Daven was the first to see it, Rache the first to recognize it for what it was.

This week has been insanely busy and next week will likely be the same.  My next day off may yet be the day that I am sitting on a plane, unavailable, isolated, packed with only my books to keep me company for my eighteen hour journey. 

Brevity is the soul of wit?

Today I saw a beautiful journal in the book store. It was that perfect size, just smaller than a paperback and about as thick. Bound in a hot-pressed bristol cover and gold along the edges, it smelled of freshly pressed paper. "A line a day Journal; a five year memory book"... beautiful. It tempted me, and yet it was $16 and started in January... seems a bit wasteful. What is more is my resistance to twitter-think; I guess I'm torn. The short format can be beautiful. It can be haiku, it can be simplicity... but on the other hand there is the common usage of "going to the grocery store" "can't wait for that TV show that I love to come on" where it becomes difficult to distinguish between insight and inner dialogue. On the other hand it gives you little excuse to shirk on writing Something every day... I think I shall try it here-- for free nonetheless! So possibly not every day, I think that even when I don't manage to take photos that I want to share, I may try posting more often with quick posts.... they shall be tagged with "brevity" and will likely be three lines or less.

For today;

Feeling downtrodden after working through the night and still being hit in the face with disappointment in the morning; I mended my soul with a change of venue. A dinner at my favorite sushi restaurant helped. It's odd how stuffed shrimp and hamachi can make things feel a little better.

And the winner for best porn title of a non-porn book goes to...

I know... the illustration doesn't support my non-porn claims, but I did give it a good skim in the thrift store and the plot summary doesn't sound too racy (although hard to follow)
... Published by Lancer Books...

oh my.

Ah smut...

I got this old book for a friend of mine. The cover made me laugh...

but for some reason this disclaimer on the back made me laugh harder...

How could I resist?

Perfect Wife

As per Sarah's request;

Perfect Wife

This feminine marvel, it can be stated;
Is one who, after having waited
A dragging, smoldering interim
(While supper cooled... and cooled) for him
To show his face from work, hears out
His explanation minus doubt
in what he hopefully has to say --
Then forgives and feeds him anyway.

--S.HY Dewhurst in Good Housekeeping

Good Housekeeping

I found the best book today. It is "The Good Housekeeping, Housekeeping Book" Published in 1947!
("I love to iron, it's what I dream about")

It looks like after the War, when Rosie the Riveter was shoved back into the domestic life, there was a need to convince women that Housekeeping was so complicated and important that their work required a full 491 page book to help them. This book is simultaneously insulting and interesting. There is a lot of good advice about stain removal, ironing, starching, washing with non-automatic or automatic washers... Things that are actually useful to have in a manual. What's great about it is that this was published before the mass commercialization of the soap industry so a lot of the products suggested are; Borax, baking soda, soap flakes, vinegar... all simple and inexpensive items.

At the same time, every chapter begins with a poem about cleaning, keeping your man happy, being a good wife... the worst is the one about learning how to use tools and perform basic household repairs;

The Chapter is Titled "You can fix it yourself, sometimes"

Enigma
How women today--
Wives, sisters, and nieces --
Can Knit or crochet
Such intracate piece,
Yet be so dumb
With a hammer or pliers,
Leaves me numb
With Amazement, sires!

Well-- ouch! Weren't these women just busy running factories not more than two years ago? How did we ever win that war at all with all of these helpless women running the country?

One of my favorite photos is this one of a housewife fumigating her dress;

The chapter it's attached to continues with the whole useful-yet-disturbing theme. It throughly describes all varieties of household pests that you could deal with. The book even describes how to recognize different varieties of ants and moths. And then... 13 of the 27 pages in "Household Pests" chapter describe all of the various ways to use DDT to kill them all.

I think I may need to share more as I go through this old gem... there's a poem about the "Perfect Wife", There is a large portion of the stain busting chapter dedicated to "vanilla, fruit or chocolate" ice cream... it's all fascinating stuff.