Palin

John McCain's pick for his VP makes me think two things:

1) He's (rightfully) scared of Obama/Biden.
2) I wish Tina Fey were still on Saturday Night Live because she'd probably do a great impression.

Halfway there

Today at lunch I finally finished the elusive book number twenty-five, which I should have finished at the end of June to be on pace for fifty this year. Alas, my chances of success are slim but we'll see how close I get.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract has the honor of being my halfway point or, rather, I have the honor of having read it. I believe it was Abe Ravelstein that was always referencing the philosopher and inspired me to look him up. As soon as I read the famous first lines of this treatise -- "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains" -- I was certain that this endeavor would be worthwhile.

Rousseau tackles natural rights vs. civil rights, freedom and slavery, religion and how it fits into the social order, political systems from monarchy to democracy, quite a bit of Roman history, etc; basically a bunch of subjects alien to my middle-class Texas upbringing and technical education. The focus on politics was a little more than I expected but was enlightening; it also inspired me to move on to Machiavelli's The Prince (another in the Penguin Great Ideas series), which is, evidently, a cornerstone of the political philosphy realpolitik (a philosophy to which "Obama the Christ," as my boy Wayne calls him, supposedly subscribes). I'm waging my war on ignorance at full tilt; the effectiveness of my efforts may vary.

Better Top Books

Jabiz sent me this link to a list of Random Houses's top books, which seems to be better than the Great Reads list.

Same "codes" as below.

1. ULYSSES by James Joyce
2. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
4. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
5. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
6. THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
7. CATCH-22
8. DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
9. SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
10. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
11. UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
12. THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
13. 1984 by George Orwell
14. I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
15. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
16. AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
17. THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
18. SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
19. INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
20. NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
21. HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
22. APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara
23. U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos
24. WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
25. A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
26. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
27. THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
28. TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
29. THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell
30. THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
31. ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
32. THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
33. SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
34. A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
35. AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
36. ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
37. THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder
38. HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
39. GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
40. THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene
41. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
42. DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
43. A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell
44. POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
45. THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
46. THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
47. NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
48. THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
49. WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
50. TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
51. THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
52. PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
53. PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
54. LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
55. ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
56. THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
57. PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford
58. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
59. ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm
60. THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
61. DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
62. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
63. THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever
64. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
65. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
66. OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
67. HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
68. MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis
69. THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
70. THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell
71. A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
72. A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul
73. THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
74. A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
75. SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
76. THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
77. FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
78. KIM by Rudyard Kipling
79. A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster
80. BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
81. THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
82. ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
83. A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul
84. THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
85. LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
86. RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
87. THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett
88. THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
89. LOVING by Henry Green
90. MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
91. TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
92. IRONWEED by William Kennedy
93. THE MAGUS by John Fowles
94. WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
95. UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
96. SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron
97. THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
98. THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
99. THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy
100. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington

I've read nineteen of these which is still a poor showing, but I can respect the list much more. So yeah, look at me: I talk about reading a lot but haven't read that much at all. Blah.

Top books

I ran into this exercise on a friend of a friend's blog and thought I'd see how I stack up.

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.
4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read and hated.
5) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas (on my shelf; will hopefully start soon!!)
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

I may have read Tess Of The D'Urbervilles in high school and possibly Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre but I'm not sure. Anyway, I'm not very impressed with this list -- where is Saul Bellow?? or Richard Wright? Camus? -- but I managed to have read fourteen of these.

Stream

There were many disturbing aspects of the dream that woke me: one was the lack of food and seeing all my neighbors together trying to grow lettuce and vegetables in the park; watching a friend sitting at a bar after a soccer game saying, "we played on the field where that girl was killed and I got a little blood on my hand" was frightening, but what startled me the most was when the man sitting next to her sniffed at her hand. And finally, there was a spy who had been dismembered by another spy; the television reenactment was a homo-erotic affair with two muscular handsome men playing the parts of the spies. After the last limb was cut the television station flashed to a still photo of the real aftermath for a few seconds before flashing the sponsor's avatar and name on the screen, "This program has been brought to you by Hasty kitchen cabinets." I don't know if that is a real brand but the insignia was a light blue cabinet on a white background, with HASTY written below. I woke up, disgusted, and think that subconsciously I don't feel very good about the world.

Stream

Okay, so Flaubert was an aesthete and I can relate, but only at certain times: Like in '04 when I was drunk and saw Wilco and everything was beautiful, or this weekend when I walked over a dune and through the fog on the Oregon beach, and saw the glow of a bonfire reflecting off the sky and it looked like Kuwait burning in the first gulf war: violent and beautiful. I need to read Walter Benjamin's 'On Hashish' and finish that Biography of William James because they are both interested in "experience." And then there is Thoreau, who was evidently a Perfectionist (in the philospohical sense, not the silly everyday sense); he tried to extract an example of how to be (ever-changing but moving toward the real self) from everything around him in nature...Damn, I've only read part of 'Walden' but this is all tied together and Emerson used to hang out with William James' father and I think Walt Whitman lived in Brooklyn and could look out over what is now the Brooklyn Bridge, just like one of the Roeblings (probably the younger) did after having his foot crushed by a boat coming in to dock

"Now, I'm going to perform"

I took a walk down to the Egyptian Theater today to see Man on Wire, and I suggest you do the same. That is, if you are at all interested in tightrope walking between the World Trade Center towers.

Border Bildungsroman

I purchased All The Pretty Horses and The Worst Hard Time for my dad as Christmas presents this year. He's an on and off reader but I thought these two stories might appeal to him. He plowed through each of them and sent Horses to me. My only previous exposure to Cormac McCarthy was my reading of No Country For Old Men right before I saw the movie. I thought the story was interesting but not captivating; it seemed to me like nothing much more than a dialogue. A reviewer at Salon summed it best when he said that if someone decided to write a screenplay of the novel, they would have a fairly straightforward task ahead of them.

Anyway, I had heard good things about the Border Trilogy from Wayne so I started Horses with high expectations (I also had a hankering for fiction since I'd been spending much of my time with Rousseau and William Whyte, both of whom are extremely interesting but a little dry). It started out a little slow and the accents irritated me somewhat, as did the terse broken, but grammatically correct, Spanish. But soon after the boys crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico, I was embroiled. I think it was during Blevins' account of his family history of being struck by lightning that I really started paying attention. All of a sudden the book was elevated to mythological proportions. Themes of life and love and morality continued throughout the remainder of the novel. If I were writing bylines, I'd say something like "they crossed the river as boys; they returned as men."

I'm going to Elliott Bay tomorrow to sell back this copy and use the credit to by the Trilogy in one volume. When I finish it, my count for the year will be to 26 books.