This Week at the Library (19/7)

Last week's reading consisted of The Stand by Stephen King and The Associate by Philip Margolin. I also checked out The Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel, thinking that it was third in the series, but found out that night that it was not. I returned the book and focused on reading The Stand. I finished it yesterday, and it was quite a read. It was reccommended to me by a number of friends, and a blog I like to read mentioned the book in one of its articles on the Left Behind series. I've been meaning to read it for several months now, but I seem to always forget. Last week I checked it out, though, and I read it. The book is a end-of-the-world horror thriller. A virus called the "Superflu" or "Captain Trips" escapes a military lab and gives western civilization a firm kick in the 'nards. Military officials pass it on to China, the Soviet Union (the book was set in th 1980s at first), and western Europe. The book doesn't mention what happens to the rest of the world, but if what happens in the U.S. is any indicator, nearly everyone dies.

Not everyone dies, though, and the survivors in North America are drawn toward two cities through their dreams. Some people are drawn toward Las Vegas by a man who seems to embody the Devil, and others are drawn toward Boulder, to a very long-lived old woman named "Mother Abagail". The two societies begin to rebuild themselves. As the book's plot unfolds, we see that it's a good/evil struggle with severe religious overtones. That annoyed me, as I had been sold on the book because of the idea that this is a plot that could actually happen -- and some magic floating cowboy is farfetched. Good wins, of course. I don't know that I'll read any more Stephen King since horror isn't my preferred genre, but The Stand was enjoyable. I thought to compare it to two series of books. First is the Left Behind series. However far-fetched the character of Randal Flagg is, he's more believable than the oafish Nicolae Carpathia of Left Behind. Carpatha has a better name, though, so I'll give him that.

The second series that this book reminded me of is Countdown. The Countdown books were written in 1998. They were set in 1999. The first book, January, was set in January of 1999. The second book was February, and the series continued as such until the conclusion of the book at the "beginning" of the Millenium in 2000. The books were meant to cash in on the end of the world hysteria around that time. Some people thought Jesus was going to come back (as they did in in 999), and some thought that Y2K was going to destroy society. I don't know what happened in 2000 in the books, because I didn't get that far. In the beginning, though, society was dealt a grevious blow. On 1 January, 1999, all adults and all children turned into black goo and died. This left the teenagers in charge; scary. The teenagers do as the survivors in The Stand do, although it takes them a bit longer to "rebuild society". They're more concerned with partying . I recall enjoying the books, but as they progressed they included a lot of mystical prophecy, and that annoyed me. I like my apocalypses secular -- religious apocalypses are always silly. I doubt these books are still around, although I did see used copies being sold on Amazon a couple of years ago. I stopped reading around "August", because by that point the "prophecies" were everywhere. The cause of the spontaneous gooification of adults and children was a virus -- this one engineered by the Russians, I think. I never read the end of the book, so I can't be sure -- but I've read synopses of the series.

The second book I read was Philip Margolin's The Associate. It concerns an associate of a big Portland law firm who begins to think that his firm is trying to protect a big pharmaceutical that wants to sell baby-deforming drugs. I enjoyed the book, although I figured out who the "bad guy" was fairly early on. I'll be reading more Margolin in the future.

Pick of the Week: The Stand by Stephen King.

That finishes last week's reading.The third book I selected -- The Plains of Passage -- was actually fourth in the Earth's Children series, so I returned it unread. This week, I picked up:

1. The Middle Ages by Dorothy Mills.
2. Theories for Everything by John Langone, Bruce Stutz, and Andrea Gianopoulos.
3. The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel.
4. The German Empire by Michael Stürmer.
   

As always, I have high hopes.

This Week At the Library (12/7)

The first book I read last week was Jean M. Auel's The Valley of Horses. It is the second in Auel's Earth's Children series, and I found it immensely entertaining if a bit too fantastic to be believable. In the first book, a young Cro-Magnon girl named Ayla is orphaned by an earthquake. She is found and adopted by a emigrating band of people who call themselves "Clan"; they are Neanderthals and have also been displaced by the earthquake. The Clan of the Cave Bear is set during her growing-up period from childhood to adult hood She is physically and mentally different from the Clan, and her many differences and superior abilities earn her the ill will of the tribe's chieftan's son. At the end of the book, Ayla is exiled from the tribe when the son becomes the ruler. In this second book, she follows a river north hoping to find people that are more like her. She ends up settling in a cave in the middle of a valley occupied by horses. While in the valley, she begins to learn more about herself and her abilities. Her abilities are entertaining, if a bit far-fetched. For instance, she successfully tames a horse and uses it and a cave lion that she rears from a cub to help her hunt. The image of a young woman riding bareback on a horse flanked by a cave lion is interesting, but hard to believe. The book also focuses on another main character; a man named Jondolar. Jondolar is a Cro-Magnon man, and half of the book follows he and his brother Thonolan as they embark on a journey together.As the plot progresses, Jondolar is injured and falls under Ayla's care. As she takes care of them, they learn about one another and fall in love. Eventually the two of them decide to leave the valley together.

The Tribe of Tiger was a look at cats -- both domesticated and wild. It explores why they act the way they do. Tiger is a short but informing read, and I was never bored once. I checked this book out mainly because of a a lifelong fascination with big cats (my bedroom walls through my lifetime have been filled with pictures of lions, cheetahs, and especially tigers), but I think cat owners are the ones who would enjoy this book the most. I may own a cat in the future (once I'm done with university), so I thought it a wonderful read. The author is Elizabeth Marshall Thomas.

Dolphin Days was a similarly-themed book. The book was written by a marine biologist ( Kenneth S. Norris) who records what he learned through years of research into spinner dolphins. I enjoyed the book, but given my love for cetaceans I'm a bit biased. The last book I read this week was the second half of Asimov's Nightfall and other Stories. Asimov is a wonderful writer, although that's like saying Beethoven had an ear for music. I found every single one of the stories in this book to be entertaining. The settings of these various stories vary, but only three of them take a bit of getting used to. The others happen right here on Earth, and many of them not that far in the future. While I loved reading the short stories, I liked the introductions that he prefaced them with best. Asimov's wonderful personality really comes through in them.

Pick of the Week: Nightfall and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov.

Now to determine my reading for this week: I came to the library with four books in mind. The first two were by Philip Margolin. Margolin writes legal thrillers. I have read two of his books; Gone, but Not Forgotten and Proof Positive. The latter could have practically been a CSI episode. Today I aimed to pick up After Dark and The Associate. I found these two books when I searched the library's catalog for information on Portland, Oregon. Margolin lives in Portland, and sets many of his books in that city. I checked out The Associate, which is the story of a young lawyer who finds that his law firm may be defending a company that has committed horrific crimes. I planned to check out After Dark, but was compelled to leave it there until next week.

I made this decision based on the length of the second book I checked out this week; Stephen King's The Stand. Given my inherent disdain for supernaturalism, I do not do much reading in the horror genre. The last horror books I read, in fact, were the Goosebumps and Fear Street books of my childhood. Those are aimed at middle-school and high school students respectively. I have always wanted to read something by King, given his reputation in fiction. The Stand's plot deals with a virus that is accidentally developed and then sweeps across the globe and destroying civilization. It spanned several inches on the shelf, so I decided that three books would suffice for this week.

The third book I checked out was the third in the Earth's Children series. I don't know what Ayla and Jondolar will do, but I look forward to finding out and would bet money that I'll enjoy the read. So, here is my selection for the week:

1. The Stand by Stephen King
2. The Associate by Philip Margolin
3. The Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel
   

This Week at the Library (3/7)

I've had a lot of good reading the last few weeks, which is not suprising given how heavily steeped my library selections were in science. I began with Before the Dawn by Nicholas Wade. The cover of the book is of a mature acacia tree, silhouetted by a beautiful African sunset. Before the Dawn is a work of anthropology, and it focuses on humanity as we became human and began to populate the globe. All aspects of human society at that time are brought into focus -- race, religion, and so forth. It reminded me a bit of Guns, Germs, and Steel. If you're interested in anthropology, I think this book is worth checking into. While reading it, I couldn't get a certain Johnny Clegg tune out of my head.

We are scatterlings of Africa, both you and I...
We're on the road to Phelamanga, beneath a coppy sky
And we are scatterlings of Africa, on a journey to the stars..
Far below we leave forever dreams of what we were....

I then read two related books about neurology. The first was Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, which dealt with the biological origins of belief. I found it interesting, but I enjoyed Phantoms in the Brain far more. It was a genuine pageturner. I enjoyed every moment I spent reading it. Phantoms deals with mysteries of the human mind -- phantom limbs, stroke oddities, delusions, hallucinations, and so on. Technical knowledge about the field may help in better understanding some of the biology mentioned, but you need nothing to appreciate the weirdness that the brain is capable of generating.

The next book I read was Jacques-Yves Cousteau's The Whale, and it was interesting enough. It isn't exactly an informative book about whales; it chronicles some of Cousteau's trips and a lot of the material is his logs. There are many pictures, but I was looking more for information. I changed genres for my next book when I read The Prophet by Khalil Gibran. It is a work of poetry, and rather than read it straight through like a novel, I read the chapters one at a time and savored them. I've posted some of my favorite quotations here.

After this, I read Isaac Asimov's Extraterrestial Civilizations, whereupon Mr. Asmiov explains the requirements for life to arise in the universe, and speculates on what kind of organisms might form in varying atmospheres. He also writes about human colonization efforts. I read this mainly because of the author. On a similar note, I read Space Station: Base Camps to the Stars, which was a history of human efforts to establish a space station in orbit. I found it to be highly interesting.

My next book was a history book titled Hitler's Shadow War, and it put forth the idea that the second world war was really just a farce -- something Hitler did to draw attention away from his genocidal policies. While it failed to prove this to me, it did offer a lot of information on the Holocaust. The last book I read was a work of fiction by Jean M. Auel, called The Clan of the Cave Bear. I ran across this while reading about Neanderthals. The book is about a young Cro-Magnon girl who is adopted by a tribe of Neanderthals. The "Clan", as they call themselves, are very different humans than we are, and the girl -- Ayla -- must struggle to fit in. As she does, we learn about how these humans might have lived. I loved this book and decided to read more of the series.

So that concludes my last two weeks of reading. As I said, highly enjoyable. Next week:

1. The Valley of Horses, the sequel to The Clan of the Cave Bear.
2. Nightfall and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov.
3. Dolphin Days by Kenneth S. Norris.
4. The Tribe of Tiger by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
5. Jewish Wisdom by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin.

That should make for a lovely week of reading.

This Week at the Library (4/6)

Generally I visit the library once a week, but last week was different. I've been getting school affairs in order and looking for a summer job, so I haven't had all the time for reading that I usually do.

Last week, I checked out The Osterman Weekend by Robert Ludlum, following the suggestion of a friend. The book, published in the early seventies, is a spy thriller centering around a Soviet plot to undermine America's economy and weaken the U.S. for invasion. It was quite a page-turner, and I pass the recommendation on for those who are interested in tales of political intrigue. The second book I read was Allegiance, by Timothy Zahn. The Star Wars book, which seems to be set between A New Hope and The Emperor Strikes Back, was enjoyable. I personally prefer books set in the time of the three prequel movies, but I enjoyed this one -- as I have most books by Zahn. The book follows four story arcs that combine in the end, but I was unable to stay interested in one of them -- the one dealing with Princess Leia and problems of diplomacy. I much preferred what was happening to five rouge stormtroopers turned vigilantes. The Osterman Weekend and Allegiance weren't the only works of fiction I checked out last week, but they were the only ones I finished. The two books in the Redwall series -- The Legend of Luke and Marlfox -- were returned unread. I did begin to read both of them, but I think I'm beginning to outgrow them.

The first book I read last week was Universe on a T-Shirt, and I enjoyed it very much. The book deals with the search for a "Theory of Everything" -- a theory that would unite all of science. I checked it out because I'm embarrassed by my ignorance of the theories of Special and General Relativity, to say nothing of my ignorance of quantum and string theory. The book begins at the very beginning of science; that is, philosophy. The author, Dan Falk, covers the discoveries and ideas of men like Democritus, Ptolemy, Kepler, and Galileo -- on to the ideas of men like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. The book explains( in a way easily comprehensible by laymen like myself) the basic properties of our natural universe. The book isn't a general science book, but its purpose is to show how all the various theories are united by humanity's search to explain our world. The author ties these ideas together quite well, I think. I enjoyed the book, and now I have a better understanding of relativity and such -- not very much, but enough so that I know what is meant by them. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a history of the essential ideas of science and an explanation of why the scientific method is so important.

The last book I read last week was An Intimate History of Humanity. This is not a history book in the usual sense; it is more a collection of essays dealing with humanity. The chapters don't have to be read chronologically, as each concern different elements of life. Some of the subjects these essays covered are conversation, loneliness, hospitality, and familial roles. These essays are broad -- in the chapter on hospitality, for instance, fundamentalism received a number of paragraphs. I checked out this book primarily because I love humanity -- and am excited by learning more about people. I want to be able to better understand people, and I found this book to be conducive to that purpose.

So that wraps up last week; what about this week? I didn't have much of a reading list -- just two books on cetaceans. I also planned to check out another book by Robert Ludlum. I did that. I forgot the names of the two other books my friend recommended me by Ludlum, so I picked the lone paperback --The Scarlatti Inheritance. The back cover indicates that is one is set during WW2 -- and will deal with Nazis. First Communists and now Nazis; stock villains are always fun.

I only found one of the cetacean books -- The Whale: Mighty Monarch of the Sea by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. I think it's a translated work (Cousteau was a French naval officer and scientist), but I'm not sure. Last night I discovered that Japan plans to start killing fifty humpback whales a year. They're already endangered! This is being done for $2 whale burgers -- a reprehensible waste. I decided to start looking into Greenpeace last night after I read this news. I'm not a vegetarian, but I sympathize with vegetarian ideals. Killing tigers and whales for burgers is a tremendous waste -- not just of life, but of beauty.

After picking up these two books, I browsed for a bit. Another book near the books on whales was Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors. It seems to be similar to Sagan's Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, so I checked it out. Nearby on display was Phantoms in the Brain, a book that "probes the mysteries of the human mind". According to the sleeve cover, this book will look in to "who we are; how we construct our body image; why we laugh or become depressed; why we may believe in God; how we make decisions, deceive ourselves and dream; perhaps even why we're so clever at philosophy, music, and art." It definately sounds like something I'm interested in reading.

The last book is Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Lewis Wolpert, a book that deals with why people believe in unexplainable things -- why they resolutely believe they've seen ghosts or been abducted by aliens, for example. It also seeks to explain why religion is ubiquitous. I am hoping the book mentions Jeanne d'Arc, also known as Joan of Arc -- she has been a personal hero of mine since childhood. I've always admired her idealism, even though she thought dead saints were talking to her.

So that's this week's reading -- heavy on the wonder of science. I'm looking forward to it!

This Week at the Library (21/5)

I have decided to start recording and commenting on the books I read from week to week I enjoy writing, and books are as suitable a subject as any I can think of. If any of my friends and family are regular readers, I hope that I can point out interesting books for them

Last Week:

A month ago, I began reading the Left Behind series by Jerry B. Jenkins and Timothy LaHaye. I finished it last week. The two books I finished were The Rapture and Kingdom Come. Rapture is the last of the three prequel novels, and Kingdom Come finishes the entire series. I do not follow Christian end-times paranoia, but thought it might make for enjoyable fiction reading. The series was mildly enjoyable -- enough for me to finish all sixteen books, anyway. I think the series could have done without the prequels -- they didn't cover anything that wasn't mentioned enough in Left Behind, and the only character I liked turned out to be the Antichrist's father. The Rapture does contain a dozen or so mini-biographies of people the authors see as True Christians -- people like Billy Graham and Dwight Moody.

Kingdom Come was interesting given its content: Jesus has come to Earth and started his Millenial Reign. He has set up princes (like King David over Jerusalem) to rule for him, freeing him to dowhatever it is deities do. The Earth in this time is not a pleasant place to be: an earthquake flattened the landscape. There are no rolling hills or mountains -- no majestic vistas or Grand Canyons. The only variation of land is Jerusalem, which is literally a city set upon a hill. There are two types of humans left: Glorified Humans, who died before the Rapture or were Raptured -- and "naturals", those schmucks who missed the Rapture or were born afterward. No one has any sexual desires, although they do manage to have kids -- I suppose Jesus provides a stork for his followers. Most of the people believe in Jesus, but some hold on and worship Satan, thinking him the unlikely underdog. They raise up an army only to be vaporized at the end of the book. This, like World War 3 and Armageddon, is anticlimatic.

A friend of mine named Mikado reccommended The Know-It-All to me. The author, A.J. Jacobs, chronicles his attempt to read the entire Encylopaedia Britannica. The book is very humorous, and I pass the reccomendation on to you: read this. Jacobs interviews Alex Trebek and goes on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.

Another book I read last week was The Everything Classical Mythology Book by Lesley Bolton. This is an easy-to-read overview of Greco-Roman mythology. The last book, one that I did not finish, was Chemistry DeMystified. I didn't finish it -- as uncomfortable as I am with my lack of knowledge in certain sciences, I'm not uncomfortable enough to commit the time studying chemistry requires. I did learn a few things that helped me this week -- although answering quiz questions in Alter Ego is probably not the best way to use the knowledge of chemistry.

Pick of the Week: The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs.

This Week:

I always look forward to a trip to the library and typically go with a list of books I aim to get. This week's list isn't long. I have two recommendations by my friend Mikado, a Stephen Hawking book, and a fiction book I'm ambivalent about. The fiction book is a work of fantasy, but without magic. (I've no love for magic: I have tried to read The Hobbit and the LOTR series and watch the movies, but I can't get in to them. Magic simply doesn't attract me.) The book series is written for older kids and teenagers, but anyone can enjoy them. The books are in the kids' section of the library, though, and that is why I am hesitant to check one out. I decide I might as well. I enter through the back and quickly grab Marlfox and another book, then get out of there as quickly as I can.

The Stephen Hawkings book -- The Universe in a Nutshell -- doesn't grab my eye, but Universe on a T-Shirt does. I see the director of the library covering the computer section and stop to speak with her. She wants to know how my quest to enter librarianship is doing, and we talk about libraries for a while. I go downstairs and notice Allegiance by Timothy Zahn on display. It's a Star Wars novel set after the first (that is, fourth) Star Wars movie. I pick up one book I was recommended (The Osterman Weekend by Robert Ludlum), but can't find the Christie novel Mikado mentioned. I then remember I wanted to read a book by Twain, but couldn't find it. I realized it would be upstairs, but still couldn't find it. While I was upstairs, I found An Intimate History of Humanity, which I looked for last week but could not find.

All of these seem promising. I check out and leave to discover that a New Beetle has parked beside me while I was inside. As I take out my keys to unlock the vehicle door, I realized that someone is approaching the Beetle and delay my departure. The woman turns out to be the owner of the Beetle. I say "I love your Beetle!" and we exchange a few words. Hers make more sense than mine because I'm practically gushing -- I'm nuts for Volkswagens, and especially New Beetles. I've wanted one since 1997 and even built a model of one. I love those little cars. They look like they're fun and don't take themselves seriously -- and that's how I treat life. I don't want a dark and serious car, no matter how luxurious it is. I'd take a blue New Beetle over a black limousine any day of the week. I back out and leave, passing a house covered in religious graffiti by the "prophet rose of Selma". I generally dismiss prophets as crazy or conniving, but the woman waves at me as I drive by. She may be crazy, but she's friendly.

1. Marlfox by Brian Jacques.
2. Universe on a T-Shirt by Dan Falk.
3. Allegiance by Timothy Zahn
4. The Osterman Weekend by Robert Ludlum
5. An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin
   

That's the library for this week.