Recent Reads

Last night I spoke to Kate and Chaunda. It was good to catch up with Kate. Chaunda has invited me to do Thanksgiving dinner with her family. What an angel!
Then I curled up with The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs. It's about his endeavor to read all of the volumes of the Encyclopedia Brittanica, all forty-four million words, and it's shelved in the humor section because of its ever-present self-effacing wit. I'm learning some esoteric facts along the way, like that caffeine's effects were first noticed by a goatherder in his animals. I can already tell that I'm going to miss this book as soon as I'm finished with it. It's that much fun. And educational to boot.
Recently I finished one Complete Idiot's Guide and one Dummies book. I've always been curious about these low-brow volumes. Consider it a comparative analysis of sorts. But actually you can primarily consider them my lazy attempts to learn about Nazi history and World War II. The Dummies book was interesting in that it included ten important people, ten important weapons, and ten what ifs of the war. Other than that, its numerous grammatical errors made it lucky that I didn't toss it out the window. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Nazi History was a well-written AND well-edited read. Before those I read a book older Matt loaned me. We have very similar tastes in books. The Last Face You'll Ever See: The Private Life of the American Death Penalty by Ivan Solotaroff wasn't anything special. Older Matt thought it relied too heavily on slang and other informal language. I didn't notice an overabundance of either. The book attempts to bring executioners out of the shadows. That could make for a fascinating book of interviews blended with facts. However, the book fell flat on its face. Dreary accounts of boring lives. And not much I didn't already know. A big letdown.