Clearly I am focused on other things. This happens.
It also makes me think of a show that Alton Brown did a few years ago, "Feasting on Asphalt: the River Run" which was about traveling up the Mississippi from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border. I want to do that trip. Kurt warns me that there might not be so much healthy food along the way. Well, these are the sacrifices we make.
I finished with Here Comes Everybody and really enjoyed it, highly recommend it if you are curious about why Twitter is so popular, what makes Wikipedia work so well, and how some little blog can make a huge difference.
When I finished "Outliers" I continued to read Here Comes Everybody (and still am) and started Losing My Religion by William Lobdell. He was a born again Christian in his 20's and became a religion correspondent for the LA Times. While writing he came to a major turning point in his faith.
While finishing the other two books, I started reading "Here Comes Everybody-The Power of Organizing without Organizations" by Clay Shirky.
Why I suck -- so busy working on the other blog that I have been sorely remiss at writing about what I'm reading. Though in all truthiness, I am reading much less in book form than before. Part of it is because I was working so much last fall that it was hard to read more than a page or two at night. Once the PJs are on and I'm in bed, the zzzzz start coming fast.
When I started working, I limped through a few pages every night of "English Creek" as a soothing balm before going to bed. When that was done, I got through a few magazines that had piled up, mostly New Yorkers, mostly the comics.
It took a while to finish reading The Mother Tongue and I skipped a few parts as I've read the book quite a few times. But it make me feel better. Then I got word that Little Brother by Cory Doctorow was ready for me at the library. I started reading it immediately and finished it within a couple of days. It's technically "young adult" but it worked just fine for this 40-something year old. It's a near-future story about teenage hackers, a terrorist attack on San Francisco and revolution. It's quite inspiring to me not to just let the government continue to erode our freedoms now. But I'm also quite lame at computer stuff so there would be a steep learning curve to try and know a fraction of what these kids know. It's a great read, a real page turner.
(Also waiting for me at the library that day was The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan, which I started to read and just couldn't get into so I returned it.)
Since finishing Little Brother, I also picked up Lewis Black's Me of Little Faith again. I had listened to him on a few radio interviews (podcasts) about his book and it made me want to continue reading. Mr. Black lost his brother to cancer about ten years ago and the way he talks about him somehow comforts me, thinking about how I might feel ten years in the future and thinking about Jen. The book is also funny and sincere about how he feels about religion. I was surprised to find that he is not a raging atheist (which would be fine with me, Bill Maher gives much food for thought in his position as such) and has had some experiences he can't explain that focus on the energies we may or may not leave behind. I'm about 3/4 of the way through and am enjoying it very much.
And after starting a new job last week, a job I'm grateful for but am not relishing by any means, I went for another comfort book English Creek by Ivan Doig. My brother in law introduced me to this book in college and I read it a lot. I just love it. So I'm back to the McCaskill clan in Montana for a while. Easing into peaceful sleep every night after work.
My friend Ron has a GREAT blog post about how he recently itemized his book collection. Please go to his post and read all about how he figured out a fast and cheap way to make a list of the 2000 books he has. It's totally BookGeek-Tastic!
Reading for me usually happens at night before bed. It might be a few minutes of a magazine and my eyelids start to get heavy or it could be an hour depending on which Harry Potter novel has come out. (Dang, no more of those...) It's not often I read during the day but the last couple of weekends I have started the weekend morning off wih a few more pages.
This morning it was to finish up the last section of David Sedaris's new book. It was thoroughly enjoyable and I will loan it to anyone who wants it. Yesterday I picked up two books that were waiting for me at the library. The first is The Know It All by A.J. Jacobs.
I had listened to his newer book, The Year Of Living Biblically on the drive back from the Callahan's a few weeks ago and enjoyed it so much I wanted to go back to Mr. Jacob's first book.
The Year of Living Biblically is quite unexpected. Mr. Jacobs is not a man of faith. Jewish but raised with barely any practice, not even a bah mitzvah, he decided to explore the book that seems to get so many people in such hot water. I really recommend it as it is touching and funny and somewhat inspiring. I won't spoil it for you, but it has next to nothing to do with Religion and God (notice the capital letters). It's about faith and spirit and your fellow man.
The Know It All promises to have some pretty fun stuff going on, mostly because Mr. Jacobs laughs easily at himself, something I'm learning to do better. Speaking of laughing at myself, while I don't need/use glasses currently, the copy of the book I got is large print and I have to say I quite like it.
Speaking of God, I also reborrowed The God Delusion and hope to get to it not long after The Know it All.
I think I have just received the last two books I will actually purchase for a long while. Austerity measures are on. These two books, plus a pad of beautiful paper and a luscious bar of soap are my treats to myself for all that I have done and all that I have endured for the last 3 months. I can't wait to read these books. First, I could not resist David Sedaris. He makes me laugh out loud and then I have to read aloud to Kurt, whether Kurt wants to hear it or not. I still quote Mr. Sedaris from his previous book, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Demin, the story where he is trying to drown a mouse. You have to read it, but the part where the guy looks down into the bucket and says "Oh, you have a little swimming mouse" slays me!
Then somewhere I read about this book and being rather well-endowed myself, I had to get it. I'm sure there will be quite a bit of laughter and knowing nods as I read.
If you've been following my other blog you know about my sister dying. Two weeks ago.
We got home from it all on Saturday (april 26) and on Monday the 28th went to the library to pick up two books that were waiting for me. One is "The God Delusion" 
by Richard Dawkins, which I will get to this weekend perhaps and the other was "We Lived At The Almont" by Eleanor Clymer.
This was a book I read in elementary school, Lihikai School to be exact. It's about a girl who is poor, her father is a Super in an old building in New York. They move into a building that is so much better than all the other places they've lived and she makes new friends, befriending a rich girl who lives a few blocks away. I don't know why I always remembered that title. I read a zillion books in elementary school, not sure why that title and story stick out. So I got it again and read it. It was a nice escape but didn't bring back any specific memories.
However, the book itself still had that awesome book smell from the 70's that you don't get anymore.
Sarah loaned me this book after we discussed Seth Godin's other book: Meatball Sundae. I have read only about halfway in this book, mostly when I have a few minutes to spare and need another morsel. I find it inspiring and intriguing so far. I need to get my own copy and read it once, all the way through.
I also found a new favorite magazine: MORE. "Celebrating women over 40" Hey! That's me! I saw the magazine at the Barnes and Noble check out stand with Helen Mirren on the cover. I adore Helen Mirren. I found the magazine to be inspiring and informative and stylish. I just might have to subscribe...
I have been reading Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott sort of on and off. More off lately. But Friday night I saw her and Elizabeth Gilbert speaking together at UCLA and was so inspired and excited by the evening that I immediately picked it up again and am almost done. I'm going to recommend it to a few people.
Anne Lamott is brutally honest and mostly about herself and her life and how human she is. This is such a great lesson and reminder to me about being honest about how human I am and most importantly, to laugh at myself. I know that laughing at myself is something I'm not great at and I'm working on it. I'm inspired to work on it in my writing and blogging.
I look forward to reading Plan B when I'm done with Traveling Mercies and then to re read Bird by Bird. I'm also curious about Operating Instructions, but that will come later.
Last night I finished reading my Library book, The Dirt On Clean. I did enjoy it very much for all its historical information. I find myself so curious about how people lived without all of our "modern day conveniences" and what life would have been like. Reading the book even gave me a better perspective while watching John Adams. While JA is in France, I imagined the gamut of smells that existed then -- perfume, powders, sweat, bad breath. Yowza. Of course, that is how everyone smelled, so it would have been "normal" for them all. As a time traveler, I would have to prepare myself not to be shocked...
I am still in line for the other two library books (Meatball Sundae and What Shamu Taught Me) and added a third today: Home: A Memoir of My Early Years by Julie Andrews. I love Julie Andrews. I remember when The Sound of Music would come on TV every year I would clear my schedule (okay, I was like 10, not a big calendar to clear) and plant myself in front of the tube. I look forward to reading this one very much!
What will I read while I wait? I've been through my latest Sunset Mag, Oprah and the weeklies. I have just received a new New Yorker, so I'll probably start that tonight. I'm going to Texas on Saturday, so I'll need a good easy read. Perhaps Stephen King's Cell...We'll see.
I got a message last week that The Dirt on Clean by Katherine Ashenburg is available at the Westside Branch of the LA Public Library. I accidentally checked that branch instead of the Palms-Rancho Park location when I put my request in online. I have until Saturday to pick it up so I think tomorrow is the day. I've been sick and staying close to home this week. Sniff sniff. I'm looking forward to this book.
While we were on our trip to Texas last week I read Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert, a book that I believe Debra loaned to me a while back. I like Elizabeth Gilbert's style quite a bit, but I prefer her non-fiction work. This was an interesting read, but I felt the story ended abruptly and then the epilogue wrapped things up so neatly I couldn't quite buy it. 
But it was something that held my attention and distracted me from all that was going on with the family. So on that level, I'm glad I had it. Thanks for the loaner, Debra.
I have always bought books. I have rarely used the library. I knew it was the one indulgence I could always justify. (Books are so much cheaper than Jimmy Choos.) But with tighter budgets as we plow forward with more creative adventures, I am looking to the library for books that sound interesting but not enough to buy. So I fired up my library card and have a few books being sent to my local library in the next couple of weeks.
The first is The Dirt on Clean, by Katherine Ashenburg.
Here is a synopsis from Publisher's Weekly:
According to Ashenburg (The Mourner's Dance), the Western notion of cleanliness is a complex cultural creation that is constantly evolving, from Homer's well-washed Odysseus, who bathes before and after each of his colorful journeys, to Shaw's Eliza Doolittle, who screams in terror during her first hot bath. The ancient Romans considered cleanliness a social virtue, and Jews practiced ritual purity laws involving immersion in water. Abandoning Jewish practice, early Christians viewed bathing as a form of hedonism; they embraced saints like Godric, who, to mortify the flesh, walked from England to Jerusalem without washing or changing his clothes. Yet the Crusaders imported communal Turkish baths to medieval Europe. From the 14th to 18th centuries, kings and peasants shunned water because they thought it spread bubonic plague, and Louis XIV cleaned up by donning a fresh linen shirt. Americans, writes Ashenburg, were as filthy as their European cousins before the Civil War, but the Union's success in controlling disease through hygiene convinced its citizens that cleanliness was progressive and patriotic. Brimming with lively anecdotes, this well-researched, smartly paced and endearing history of Western cleanliness holds a welcome mirror up to our intimate selves, revealing deep-seated desires and fears spanning 2000-plus years.
Sounds like something that is right up my non-fiction, non-sequitur, apropos-of-nothing alley.
Another book on hold is What Shamu Taught Me about Life, Love, and Marriage, by Amy Sutherland.
Here's a tease of a synopsis:
While observing exotic animal trainers for her acclaimed book Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched, journalist Amy Sutherland had an epiphany: What if she used these training techniques with the human animals in her own life–namely her dear husband, Scott? In this lively and perceptive book, Sutherland tells how she took the trainers’ lessons home.
I want to read it as a way for me to learn to be a better partner in marriage, a better sister, daughter, aunt, friend, etc etc.
The third book on hold is Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing Out Of Sync? by Seth Godin
Synopsis from B&N:
"Gotta get me some of that New Marketing. Bring me blogs, e-mail, YouTube videos, MySpace pages, Google AdWords . . . I don't care, as long as it's shiny and new."
Wait. According to bestselling author Seth Godin, all these tactics are like the toppings at an ice cream parlor. If you start with ice cream, adding cherries and hot fudge and whipped cream will make it taste great. But if you start with a bowl of meatballs . . . yuck!
As traditional marketing fades away, the new tools seem irresistible. But they don't work as well for boring brands ("meatballs") that might still be profitable but don't attract word of mouth, such as Cheerios, Ford trucks, Barbie dolls, or Budweiser. When Anheuser-Busch spends $40 million on an online network called BudTV, that's a meatball sundae. It leads to no new Bud drinkers, just a bad case of indigestion.
Meatball Sundae is the definitive guide to the fourteen trends no marketer can afford to ignore. It explains what to do about the increasing power of stories, not facts; about shorter and shorter attention spans; and about the new math that says five thousand people who want to hear your message are more valuable than five million who don't.
The winners aren't just annoying start-ups run by three teenagers who never had a real job. You'll also meet older companies that have adapted brilliantly, such as Blendtec, a thirty-year-old blender maker. It now produces "Will it blend?" videos that demolish golf balls, Coke cans, iPhones, and much more. For a few hundred dollars, Blendtec reached more than ten million eager viewers on YouTube.
Godin doesn't pretend that it's easy to get your products, marketing messages, andinternal systems in sync. But he'll convince you that it's worth the effort.
I'm learning about marketing, how to sell whatever it is you need to sell (books, blogs sites, photographs, etc) and in this new millennium, I need all the help I can get. (Digg this site please!)
By the way, have you seen Blendtec's videos? Please, see them. They seriously make me want to own of those babies!
