running book list 2010

Before it gets too late in the year to start this, here goes:

1. The Mismeasure of Man (and essays), by Stephen Jay Gould
2. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, by Richard Feynman
3. A House for Mr. Biswas, by V.S. Naipaul
4. A Stillness at Appomattox, by Bruce Catton (second or third time)
5. The Lost Books of the Odyssey, by Zachary Mason
6. Sleep, Memory, by Vladimir Nabokov
7. Applied Nutrition for Mixed Sports, by Lyle McDonald
8. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, by Haruki Murakami

realization

I have lost the ability talk about some political issues. When someone brings up health care reform, or the Christian right, or the Democrats' most-recent fuckup or chickening-out, or the Supreme Court intellectually-dishonest and hypocritical disaster du jour, I will usually have a pretty solid idea what they're talking about and the impulse to start/join the conversation. That impulse will quickly and decisively be overwhelmed by lightheadedness and a need to sit down and breathe deeply. And talk about something less nauseating, like "Love Actually." (To be clear, I find "Love Actually" nauseating and painful to watch.)

I wonder if it would be different if I didn't hang around the choir so often. There's no argument, just one-upping each other with arguments we all agree on and anecdotes we all find sickening until we're (I'm) hysterical and upset. At this rate I'm either going to mellow out completely, tune out completely, or become a conservative just to keep the conversations joinable. Of those three, I'm sad to say the second is probably the most likely. Sad because that's exactly what the people doing the things that make me upset want. They want me crushed and out of the way. A fourth option would be to find some conservative friends.

need to read

Re-read 1984. "Red Riding" quartet, by David Peace.