book update

Feminism is for Everybody was a good read. Not much that I didn't know or believe already. For the most part hooks doesn't concern herself with evidence, sticking with unqualified declarations. That's fine for the most part -- it makes the book easy to read and comprehend, which is a big part of her stated aim, and many of her observations are common-sensical enough not to need much backup -- but she makes some questionable assertions. These are irritating because they rarely do anything to strengthen her arguments, even at face value, and they serve to weaken the book by causing even a very sympathetic reader to doubt her.

Now I'm in the midst of reading The Gifts of the State: New Afghan Writing, a collection of short stories by Afghans under 30 years old, which came out of a series of workshops held in Kabul by an American writer whose name I forget. So far, they are wonderful. More on that when I'm done. I'm also going to start picking my way through a collection of landays, traditional Afghan poems, called I Am the Beggar of the World, as I continue to work my way through the Auden collection next to the bed.

Yesterday, I took off work and did a bunch of stuff. Among that stuff was going to Kramerbooks while waiting to get my hair cut, and buying four books. So I'm now re-reading A Wizard of Earthsea, because it has been too long. Frankly I'd forgotten a lot of it. I was going to pick up the second and/or third book(s) in the trilogy but decided I should reacquaint myself with Ged first.

Also got:
- The Lathe of Heaven, which I started listening to on tape with Mom many (10+) years ago, but which I don't remember finishing. It's on the "best titles/names" list. Lathe, what a beautiful word. What can I say, I was in a Le Guin mood yesterday.
- Murphy, by Samuel Beckett. It's about time I read me a Beckett novella. Don't know much about any of them but the first page of this one was wonderful so there you go.
- Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver. Same as the Beckett: It's just time. I loved Appointment in Samarra, which is contemporaneous with Carver and which I imagine to be similar. Should be interesting to see whether my pre-formed impression of Carver as being in O'Hara's company.

a delicate truth

John LeCarre's latest, from last year. As I put it to C: JLC books are like candy to me. I'm happy to go months and months without but if you put a bag of Skittles next to me they're going down the hatch in short order. I read the book in basically two sittings: 60 pages on the MARC on Friday and 250 pages after getting home last night. Did not get enough sleep as a consequence. Moron.

It's not a great book, not on par with Tinker, Tailor or The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Lots of people can craft page-turners. I don't even think it's that hard. Dan Brown can do it. But not many authors I've read can combine the potboiler, page-turner narrative with such strong writing and believable characters as JLC.

Plus it's a book after my own political heart, a lamentation about the privatization of warfare and intelligence gathering and the hideous consequences that has.

found poetry

There's a guy on the forum where I log my workouts who is an aspiring sprinter. He is an odd and sometimes really frustrating person to interact with, not least because his grasp of English appears limited. For a while I thought he was a troll but now I just think he's young, a nonnative speaker, and preternaturally stubborn. But his analysis of each of his workouts can be a trip and a half. Here is a recent example, which is completely unedited except for the line breaks and title.

"Fast again," by seifullaah73 and LBSS (me)

It was a nice day
slight wind from north direction, which be
hitting me from the side and it was a good day as
I found
Something, which had caused to start feeling fast
during the runs compared to the last 2 weeks.
I found
out that I hadn't fully mastered the arm
Swing yet, not in the run but from start to driving out.
I found
that before I was swinging fast when I come out,
but this time I focussed on exploding out first then swinging arms
fast and I felt
fast again,
which was good.

"Grey Cloud," by seifullaah73 and LBSS

It was a sort of grey
cloud slightly sunny day
and very strong wind not
only was it strong enough
to be close to push someone
off their feet but it was a
head wind, when I was running
not only was I running
a slight hill I was running
into this strong wind getting
stronger the further I went
it reduced my speed to a jog
pace, that hard so it was
a good resisted training.

"Approach," by seifullaah73 and vag (another guy on the forum who's gotten into it)

It was again a nice hot sunny day,
I did my warm ups as usual,
my a skip and b skip are much better,
as the more you do it the more you can adjust to
what feels right.

After I finished resting before third rep,
people came in the pitch to play about,
so i was about to move to another side of the field,
until when i was about to start,

they started leaving,
I approach the normal place,
they stall a bit,
so I am thinking

are they leaving, until they leave,
they decided to use astroturf,
which people play football that go to the school nearby,
short pitch,
I rejoice

do the third rep and finish off with 2 reps,
which I do one after the other like a tempo,
120m run,
120m walk,
120m run.