a few quick tech thoughts

I don't know why I keep charging my work-issued Blackberry. I never look at it. I can get my work email on my phone and my (also-work-issued) iPad, so I hardly ever use the Blackberry. I suppose it's more out of a sense of obligation that I keep it nearby and ready. I can't stand the interface compared to iOS, and the little keys have never been kind to my giant fingers.

Speaking of the iPad, I've been reading George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones novels on my tablet with the Kindle e-reader. I wanted to read the books but I couldn't imagine carrying around large book after large book for weeks. It seemed to be the right time to give ebooks a shot. Aside from a bit of glare on the screen, I hardly notice I'm not reading a paper book. The fonts look the same as the printed versions, and while there are no page numbers, there's a page counter and index a tap away. I love that the Kindle app includes a free dictionary to look up those archaic medieval terms, and the search feature makes it easy to find a character's previous appearances. I do have to be careful when I'm carrying the iPad around at lunch, especially outside. It would break my heart to drop it.

I still like real, physical books for some things, like signed copies and sharing with friends, but I have to admit that ebooks are better than I expected. And given a dearth of space on my bookshelf at home, I think there will be more ebooks in my future. My future is now!

Return to "Foundation"

I don't have any major summer reading projects this year.  I had planned to read Infinite Jest this summer, but got pulled into an online reading project last fall and finished it in March.  I do have a sizable stack of books at home just waiting to be read, so I'll work my way through those.  One will be Noah Andre Trudeau's Gettysburg, since I'm going to a wedding there in July and I'd like to know more about the battle before I see the battlefield.  I have a few other non-fiction history books to read, such as a book on the Jewish Resistance during WWII and David McCullough's book about the Johnstown Flood.

But before I dive into all of that boring history nonsense, I'm re-reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels.  I devoured Asimov's fiction (and some of his non-fiction) as a kid.  I tore through the Robot novels, the Empire novels, and the Foundation series, all before I was in high school.  I remember them as fast reads but I don't recall much of the detail.  I do remember enjoying the Foundation novels more than any of his other books.  I think it was the concept of psychohistory that captivated me more than the ideas of robots solving crimes or a decaying galactic Empire. When I was home last October, I grabbed all five of the books I have in the series (not counting the two prequel novels, which Asimov wrote much later in his life) and brought them back to New York.  I think I'll read a Foundation novel, then read some non-fiction, then read another Foundation novel.  I think of them as palate cleansers.  Also, it means I'll spread out the fun over the summer.

I rarely re-read books.  The last time I remember re-reading anything was 2001, when I read the Lord Of The Rings trilogy for the third time, in preparation for the movies.  But every once in a while I think it's worth revisiting books that I've loved.  I listen to the same music over and over (though I introduce new albums all the time, I return to my favorites far more often) and I re-watch movies I love.  Why not re-read books and see what I missed the first time around?  Also, it's an excuse for me to keep all those books on my shelves.  I can always say "hey, I might want to read that again" when it comes time to clean the apartment.

Wish me luck

On Sunday afternoon I embarked on a long-awaited journey: I'm reading War and Peace.

I've read most of Dostoyevsky's novels, Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, and in college I read Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and loved it. But when it came to War and Peace, I was skittish. I remember my 9th grade English teacher's warnings about that novel: it was long and every character had six names. The scope of the novel was daunting enough, and then there was the strong possibility that I wouldn't have a clue who anyone was. Also, I remember a series of Peanuts comics in which Charlie Brown had to read the book. If my teacher's admonitions didn't do the trick, seeing that poor kid struggle with Tolstoy kept me away from the book for decades.

A few years ago the New Yorker ran an article about Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, the husband-and-wife translating team whose editions of Dostoevsky's novels received great reviews. I read their versions of Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov and while both books took me months to read, I relished the experiences. When I learned that they were working on a version of Tolstoy's masterwork, I couldn't wait to read it. I waited a bit longer than I thought. Their translation was published in late 2007 and I picked up my copy last year. After I finished The Road last week, I waited a few days to pick my next book. I couldn't hold out for long.

At the moment I'm only 20 pages in and constantly referring back to the list of characters in the front, but I have a decent idea who everyone is. Tolstoy's descriptions of the people and the settings reminds me of Anna Karenina, so I'm in familiar territory. On the other hand, the text is in English and French (with translations at the bottom of each page), plus historical endnotes. No matter. If I enjoy War and Peace as much as I enjoyed Tolstoy's other masterpiece, I have a delightful few months ahead of me.

Life after the end of the world?

I've been enjoying post-apocalyptic fiction lately. ("Enjoying" isn't the right word for something so bleak, but we'll go with it for now.) There's "Life After People" on The History Channel, showing realistic portrayals of what would happen to our world if people suddenly disappeared. Two weeks ago I saw Terminator Salvation which is a different sort of apocalypse. And this evening I finished Cormac McCarthy's The Road, about a father and son trying to survive after a holocaust of unimaginable proportions. Plus, any time I Am Legend pops up on my cable box I end up watching part of it, and I watched 28 Weeks Later over the weekend. And I still think about Stephen King's The Stand, though I read it over 10 years ago. I'm on a bit of a nightmare hellscape kick lately.

What struck me about The Road was the utter bleakness of the environment. McCarthy doesn't tell the reader how long it's been since the big event that destroyed the world. But judging from how little his protagonists are able to scavenge from the houses and stores they encounter, it's been a few years. Nearly everything consumable has long been picked over. They find empty cupboards and bare shelves in crumbling houses. What little they do find may be contaminated. They drink filthy water from feeble streams and sift rat droppings out of cornmeal. There is no hope that the world they once knew will ever be restored.

The universe of "Life After People" isn't as desolate, but it is just as lonely. Within a matter of days, nature will begin to reclaim our cities. In a few years habitable buildings will become barely recognizable relics. The natural world would go on without us. If humanity were decimated but not eradicated by a global virus (for example), it would be virtually impossible for the survivors to maintain civilization as we know it. Our cities would crumble and fall, and there would be no going back to that kind of life, not for hundreds of years. We would be bereft of all the modern comforts of electricity and heat.

(That's one thing that bothered me about Terminator Salvation. Where did the resistance get all their technology? They had laptop computers and futuristic touchscreen cellphones. If Judgment Day had happened in 2004, then there would have been no more laptops or cellphones after that year. Anything they had would have to be cobbled together out of spare parts, and would look appropriately jury-rigged. That's not quite how things looked in that movie. There were far bigger problems with it than the look of the technology, but the fact that the resistance didn't seem to be limited by their scavenged gear took me out of the movie.)

I think the first year after a cataclysmic disaster would be the worst. Assuming you were one of the survivors, you'd have to figure out how to get along without running water, heat, or light. Everything you knew about life in the 21st century would be gone, never to return. Just as an example, I thought about my iPod. Its battery would last for about 15 hours, used conservatively, and then my MP3 player would be a useless hunk of metal and plastic. Eventually you'd find a way to live without these conveniences, but what kind of existence would it be? I don't know if I could survive in that world. I hope I never have to find out. I don't really worry about the end of the world, but if I think about this subject when I'm trying to fall asleep, I tend to be awake longer than I'd like.

My current reading list

I've been reading a lot of non-fiction lately. I finished The Mask of Command a few weeks ago, then took about a week to read Will Leitch's God Save The Fan (during which time the author signed my copy at a book reading downtown). I'm currently enjoying Alex Ross' The Rest Is Noise, an overview of music of the 20th Century. Normally I try to alternate fiction with non-fiction, but I received a number of books as holiday gifts, all of which were in the non-fiction category, so I'm working my way through those now. In particular, I am fascinated by Ross' recounting of the history of atonality and the popular reaction to innovations in composition by Schoenberg, Webern, Berg, and Bartok. (I'm only 120 pages in, so no spoilers!)

When I'm done with The Rest is Noise, I have Stephen Colbert's book on my shelf, and the book about the guy who spent a year reading the Encyclopedia Britannica. My non-fiction parade looks like it's going to continue for a few more months.

To be a Guitar Hero, one must act like a guitar hero

I just have to read Slash's autobiography and I'll learn everything I need to know to succeed at Guitar Hero and life. Apparently success involves inviting your contractor to do lines of coke with you at 8 AM. Steven Adler kept his coke in his refrigerator's butter tray.

quick weekend trip home

I'm averaging a trip home to DC/Baltimore/suburban Maryland every seven weeks or so. This time I went to see one of my cousins from England (as well as the rest of my family). My brother and I spent Friday evening at the Baltimore Book Fair, where we watched a grilling demonstration by the authors of Mastering The Grill (they marinated steaks in Scotch and then grilled them right on wood coals, blowing the ash off the top with a leafblower), listened to a few local bands, and shopped for books. I picked up a dog-eared copy of Dreadnought by Robert Massie, a 900-page volume about the arms race between Britain and Germany at the beginning of the 20th century that led to the construction of the first battleships. I also found DVDs of At Last, the 1948 Show and Do Not Adjust Your Set, the two British TV series that were the precursors to Monty Python's Flying Circus. All of that material should keep me busy for the next few weeks and months.

Saturday and Sunday were for relaxation, visiting with family and hanging out at my dad's house. I watched about half of Lebron James on Saturday Night Live and reminded myself why I don't watch that show anymore. And I overate at every meal, so I think it's time to double my efforts in the gym and finish the cycling season in strong fashion with a few more decent rides.

I'm ready for cold weather now, in case the weather gods are reading this. I'm sick of schvitzing.

too many bloggers in one place at the same time

Last night was another Varsity Letters night at Happy Endings, again featuring some of the top sports bloggers in and around New York. I got to meet Will Leitch of Deadspin (again) and Matt Ufford of With Leather and Kissing Suzy Kolber, and hear some excellent blog posts, book excerpts and stories read by the original authors. You can see my photos of the event at the usual location. I didn't get a photo of myself there, but someone else did.

old bookshelves and new books

I have an old bookcase at home. I don't know how old it is, exactly; it came with my first post-college apartment in Washington, and I brought it to New York when I moved here in 1999. It's a cheap piece of junk that was ready for replacement seven years ago, and continued years of abuse by piling too many books on it have not helped matters. Since I moved to my current apartment on the UES, the bookshelf has been listing to one side, and it's been obvious that the end is near for my oldest piece of furniture. On Monday night, I was looking through my cookbooks for a particular recipe when one of the shelves started to collapse. One of the plastic pins supporting the shelf fell out of its hole and the others looked ready to go at any minute. I started pulling books off the weakened shelf and putting them on the floor in a calm, methodical manner. That's when the entire bookcase shifted even more to one side and looked ready to fall over entirely. I held up the bookcase with my right hand and started throwing books onto the floor, trying to accomplish in my own way what the bookcase seemed intent on doing without my help. While I was doing this, the cats looked at me like I was crazy, and I'm sure I looked ridiculous as I hurled books to the floor while leaning against the bookcase. (To be fair, the cats always look at me like I'm crazy. I'll save that for another post.) I cleared the collapsed shelf and moved some other books from another shelf, so the bookcase appears to be stable now. But I've got books piled on the floor and on my old computer desk instead of on the shelf, and I still have a bookcase that's leaning to the right and threatening to fall over any time. I think I'll have to go shopping for a new bookcase this weekend.

In the meantime I gave away a few books to a co-worker and started thinking about getting rid of some of my other books. Clearly, getting more books would be a bad idea given my current situation. However, on Wednesday night, James and I went to the Borders at the Time Warner Center for a discussion and signing of The Blind Side with Michael Lewis. I bought a copy of Lewis' new book for him to sign, and since the store gave all of us coupons for 30% off any sports books, I bought Friday Night Lights as well. I love the TV show, and I didn't see the movie last year because I wanted to read the book first. So I gave away two books, and I picked up two more. My grand plan to decrease the number of books in my office is off to a smashing start.

One note on the signing: James, along with a few other people in front of us, had Lewis personalize the signature in the book. But I just had him sign it for me without putting my name in it. If I'd planned to give the book as a gift, I'd have had him personalize it. Since the book is for me, I didn't feel like I needed to see "To Phil" next to the signature. James accused me of intending to re-sell the book on eBay, which made me think that's what Lewis thought I planned to do as well. Rest assured I'm not selling my copy of The Blind Side on eBay. I do remember reading somewhere that signed copies of books are worth more without a personalized inscription, and that did play into my thinking. But I just didn't need to see my own name on the inside of the book.