Event Horizon

Memorial Day

In Memoriam

Read Any Good Books Lately?

So, have you read any good books lately? According to a new survey, most people read four books last year, and one in four didn't read any books at all. Here's the interesting part from the report (Guardian Unlimited - One in Four Read No Books Last Year):

One in four adults read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and older people were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices. The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year - half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn't read any, the usual number read was seven.

Sadly, I'm in that group that read fewer than four books in a year. I used to read a lot more, I'd typically read three books at a time, one non-fiction (usually a biography), one fiction (usually sci-fi), and one motivational self-improvement type book, and alternating them, depending on what I was in the mood for and usually would finish one book a week. That was before grad school, which totally demolished my recreational reading routine, and I never recovered. Now, I may read a couple of pages of a novel before going to bed and that's if I'm in the mood for it and it's not too late, but when you only read five or six pages a night, well, it takes a while to finish a book. I do enjoy reading, I think a well written novel will stay with you longer than a movie will, and introduce you to characters you may remember for the rest of you life. I just don't have the time that I used to and I have to admit that the internet (and yes, blogging) and all the other entertainment distractions we have now do tend to take away from time spent reading. Still, this news has me feeling a bit guilty about my reading habits. I think I'll go read a book now.

Lost World

The great writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a book called The Lost World (long before Michael Crichton) in which a professor and his team discover a pristine jungle plateau where unknown species and dinosaurs lived. Well, that has actually happened, minus the dinosaurs. This CNN report ('Lost world' found in jungle) details the discovery in the jungles of New Guinea. This is great news for National Geographic (and documentary filmmakers), ecotourists, and biotech firms. Discovery awaits.

Clark's Vision

Space visionary Arthur C. Clark is back in the news (BBC News - Arthur C Clarke still looking forward) and still taking us over the speculative horizon. His books made a profound impact on my early imagination and I'm glad to see him still pushing the boundaries of our possible future.

Murder, She Wrote

Today is the anniversary of the death of famed mystery writer Agatha Christie, she died in 1976. She is one of my favorite mystery writers, I love curling up with a good mystery novel and trying to figure out "who dunnit." For more information on Agatha Christie, see the official website here.

Toasting Tolkien

The humans over at the Tolkien Society remind us that January 3rd was J.R.R. Tolkien's 113th birthday. According to its website, the group is planned a global toast in his honor: "On January 3rd Tolkien fans around the world were invited to raise a glass and toast the birthday of this much loved author at 21:00 (9 pm) your local time." So, here is a belated toast to 'The Professor Tolkien, creator of worlds, wizards, and those wonderful creatures called hobbits.

Google the Library

Google has signed a deal with leading libraries to scan their books and add them to the Google web index (TechWeb - Google Undertakes Huge Library-Search Project). This is exciting news for bibliophiles, info-junkies, and world civilization. It is one of those transformative events, the kind historians will note as a Really Important Development. They are starting with books that are already in the public domain, just as the Project Gutenberg e-text archive has done, but clearly the next step is to scan copyrighted works. This won't mean the end of libraries, but it will put a library the size of the planet in the hands of anyone with a computer. This will change the flow of everyday life for students, scholars, writers, journalists and maybe even desperate housewives.

Reading Declines

I've always been an avid reader, I have a wide variety of interests (history, politics, science fiction, biography) and actually enjoy reading, so I noticed a recent report that says reading has declined in the U.S. over the last few years. According to this Guardian article Report Shows Big Drop in Reading in U.S.:

The reading of books is on the decline in America, despite Harry Potter and the best efforts of Oprah Winfrey. A report released Thursday by the National Endowment for the Arts says the number of non-reading adults increased by more than 17 million between 1992 and 2002.

The report blames television, movies and the Internet for the decline in reading. I have to admit that I've also been reading less than I did in the past. It had been my habit to read a book or so a week. I would usually read a fiction and non-fiction book at the same time, just for variety. However, my reading for pleasure pretty much ended in grad school and I have not resumed my past habits after grad school. If any of you happen to notice the reading link on the sidebar, I'm ashamed to note that the fiction book has been the same for many months now. I'm reading the Otherland sci-fi trilogy, and I'm on the second book, and it's taking a long time to finish, mostly because I read only a few pages a day, if that. It's not that the book is not interesting, it's just that I don't have the time for it. In my case, the blame lies with the Internet, with reading news online, with blogging, and otherwise spending the time online that in the past I would have spent reading. I feel an odd sort of guilt about this, and a desire to renew my old reading habits. So, what about you, have your reading habits changed? Read any good books lately? Please use the comment link right below to chime in about this new national crisis, the decline in reading.

The Last Lionizer

The biographer and historian William Manchester has died (the New York Times has a report here). Reading his books on Kennedy and Churchill at a young age shaped my interest in history and politics and I can't help but wonder how much of my own views on leadership and character were shaped by his glowing portrayals. I've since read other more critical works on Kennedy and Churchill, but his is the version I best remember. The great statesmen whose lives he chronicled were great because they challenged people to rise above, to be better than they thought they could be, and perhaps we can say that as a biographer, Manchester depicted his subjects as better than they were. In an age of trashy tell-all books there is a space for the herioc depiction of leaders, a space so well filled by Manchester. He will be missed.

Mark Twain

The New York Times notes that today is the anniversary of the death of Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), he died April 21, 1910. I can't really comment on what Twain contributed to American culture, but he certainly had an impact on my childhood and my discovery of the joy of reading.