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The meteorological conditions were superb. Unfortunately, the bookish ones were not.
Despite a blizzard providing a perfect excuse to be sequestered indoors and plenty of books on the TBR shelves and Nook, my reading so far this weekend has been abysmal. First, although about a third of the way in, I gave up on Mark Twain’s autobiography. For whatever reason, it just didn’t keep my interest. In fact, despite the fact I started in on Thanksgiving, I read four others books during the roughly two weeks I spent with Twain. I finally just punted. No worries, though, given the books on the TBR shelf by my reading chair and the larger one in the bedroom.
Yet none of them really intrigued me. I picked up and put down at least half a dozen books, never making it more than two pages into any one of them. Still no problem. After all there’s more than 50 e-books on my Nook (95 percent of which were free from B&N, Project Gutenberg or the new Google e-bookstore). I got about 60 pages into Orhan Pamuk’s My Name Is Red. My mind, though, was too unfocused for the multiple narrators and folk tales within the tale. I then switched to…. Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho. Only in retrospect did I realize that leap suggested just how nebulous my reading interests are.
But it isn’t necessarily a barometric state. It’s something I’ve been dealing with for a week. Perhaps the idea of reading what I want when I want is too freeing. And I’m guessing that before the day is out, I will have abandoned Ellis for another author. In fact, I checked out an ebook from the public library this morning — and even now am contemplating a jaunt to the library to return some books and see if anything grabs me as I wander amongst the shelves.
Some live in a state of passionate indecision.
Mason Cooley, City Aphorisms, Twelfth Selection
Bulletin Board
- As much as I hate winter, there’s just something about a good old fashioned blizzard — if you’re safe at home and need not go anywhere. (Fireplace and plenty of reading material assumed.)
- For some reason, my RSS feed suddenly started generating 404 errors Friday. Hopefully, that has been fixed but, if not, let me know. (Of course, the people who are experiencing the problem may not be able to read this.)
Worthwhile Reading in the Interweb Tubes
Bookish Linkage
Nonbookish Linkage
We would be worse than we are without the good books we have read, more conformist, not as restless, more submissive, and the critical spirit, the engine of progress, would not even exist.
Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Prize lecture
It’s worthwhile taking a look at Wired.com’s piece and online picture gallery on the conversion of the Homestake Gold Mine to the Sanford Underground Laboratory, a physics lab that, among other things, will help look for so-called dark matter. It seems, though, that the science and uniqueness of the site left the reporter needing to brush up on her geography.
 According to the second paragraph of the story, the mine is “nestled in the town that inspired the HBO drama Deadwood.” Perhaps that is a bit of literary license (in a nonfiction piece) but as the writer also took some of the pictures with the article, she should know — as does anyone vaguely familiar with the area or the mine — it is located in Lead, not Deadwood. Although Lead and Deadwood adjoin each other, they are separate towns.
I also might not use the term “nestled” to describe the mine. As one of the pictures she took shows, much of the above ground portion of the mind is clearly visible on top of one of what passes for mountains here. (As an aside, my wife is from Lead and her father worked for Homestake until his retirement many years ago. The structure shown in that picture, known as the Yates Shaft, could be seen from their living and dining room windows.) And as the picture accompanying this post shows, nestled doesn’t do justice to the removal of millions and millions of tons of another mountain between the Yates Shaft and downtown Lead known as the Open Cut. The site of the original Homestake lode discovered in 1876, the Open Cut was abandoned from 1945 to 1983 when increasing gold prices led to mining it again and the relocation of the state highway adjoining it.
So I’ll give Wired and the reporter an “A” for paying attention to an undoubtedly unique science lab. But they may need to improve their sign and map reading skills.
UPDATE: Geographically challenged reporters may be the last of the lab’s problems. It also now appears to have financial challenges.
Geography is only physics slowed down and with a few trees stuck on it.
Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay
Something that had been in the back a my mind for a while really started to sink in with last week’s announcement of the Grammy nominees — age is not only staring me in the face, it is slapping it.
Ever since this blog started, I’ve had an annual post on my record of the year. I even have a 10-year list. I began pondering this year’s selection a while ago — and kept coming up blank. Now the Grammy nominations and a few other lists suggest that I am falling too far behind on music to catch up againt.
I may have heard a cut or two off Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs but, to my knowledge, that’s the closest I’ve come to hearing a note from any of the Album of the Year nominees. I don’t do much better in other categories. In the jazz area, the only one I have is the Dave Holland Octet’s Pathways, nominated for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. In the rock and pop areas, the only albums I’ve heard are Neil Young’s Le Noise (Best Rock Album nominee) and Singularity, the album by former Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger nominated for Best Pop Instrumental Album. I was not really impressed by either.
Now the Grammys aren’t a lodestar of musical excellence. In fact, Arcade Fire’s presence on the list seems to go a bit contrary to the commercial nature of the awards. Still, the nominations aren’t the only thing showing my musical tastes have become too aged.
For example, while it covers a very broad range of music, I haven’t heard a single album on NPR Music’s 50 favorite albums of 2010. I have one album on Paste Magazine’s 50 best albums of 2010, Bruce Springsteen’s The Promise. While the set of previously unreleased songs from the Darkness on the Edge of Town recording sessions is at number 12, I haven’t even heard any of the other 49 releases on the list. Similarly, the highest-ranking album I’ve heard on Amazon’s best albums of 2010 is number 22, David Cross’ Bigger and Blackerer — a comedy album. The only other one I’ve heard in the top 50 is Corinne Bailey Rae’s The Sea in position 27.
It perhaps shouldn’t be surprising. I quit listening to Top 40 radio in the mid- to late 1970s and I’ve never enjoyed rap or hip hop. That alone drastically reduces the scope and variety of what I hear. Still, nothing I heard this year really grabbed me. I can only hope that is a reflection of what was released this year. After all, being old is one thing — being old without hope is far more serious.
Inside every older person is a younger person — wondering what the hell happened.
Gospel singer Cora Harvey Armstrong
Bulletin Board
- A tryptophan overdose meant no edition last weekend and, hence, a couple items this week are a bit older than usual.
Worthwhile Reading in the Interweb Tubes
Blog Line(s) of the Week
- “As an American, I don’t think any translation is really necessary. If the book’s any good, the author would have damn well written it in English. Woooooooooooo! [FIRING GUNS INTO THE AIR, EATING BACON CHEESEBURGER PURCHASED WITH CREDIT CARD, MOCKING IMMIGRANTS, LISTENING TO LEE GREENWOOD]”
Bookish Linkage
- Adam Parfrey runs Feral House, one of the most intriguing publishing houses in the country. He is profiled by Seattle Weekly, which calls him “America’s most dangerous publisher.” (via)
- One of the judges for the Best Translated Book Award has launched a blog called Against Amazon. It is an interesting development as it was only six weeks ago it was announced that Amazon was going to underwrite the award. (via)
- By coincidence, I read about the anti-Amazon site the same day I read that Amazon is giving a $44,000 grant to Words Without Borders, another of my literature in translation heroes.
- The NYT has selected its 100 Notable Books of the year and, among those, its 10 best books of the year. online. I’ve read 11 of the 48 fiction works, including two of the five in the top 10, but only three of the 52 nonfiction books, none of which is in the top 10.
- A list of more interest is the gift guide at Salonica World Lit, skewed, naturally, toward those of us who enjoy iternational literature.
Nonbookish Linkage
It’s getting hard to be someone but it all works out
It doesn’t matter much to me
“Strawberry Fields Forever,” The Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour
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Additionally, some links on this blog go to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. There is no additional cost to you. Contact me You can e-mail me at prairieprogressive at gmaildotcom.
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