Category: Books and such

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England part 2

And then to Oxford, and in one of the luckiest things I’ve ever done – school was out! No students means that pubs that I was never able to get near before were now empty, and I took full advantage. Places like the White Horse, which has like four tables and is in great demand because it’s next door to Blackwell’s, my favorite bookstore in the world.

I was staying just a few hundred feet from Christ Church, the largest college in Oxford

Christ Church

It’s one of the newer colleges – Henry VIII founded it. Oxford has 39 colleges scattered around the town. I was a half mile from the city center, which meant that I could go to places like the Ashmolean Museum and the Bodleian Library with ease.

Most places look like something out of Harry Potter

Bodleian

Mostly because they are something out of Harry Potter – parts of the films were filmed here.

Great time, and it’s good to be home and plan my next big trip – which I have to take this year. See next post.

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R.I.P, P.J.

The only funny conservative. Although he didn’t start out that way. As a National Lampoon writer, he wrote insightful policy pieces such as the classic ‘How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink‘.

This could have been written by Doug. In fact, I suspect it was:

I mean, so what if some fifty-eight-year-old butt-head gets a load on and starts playing Death Race 2000 in the rush-hour traffic jam? What kind of chance is he taking? He’s just waiting around to see what kind of cancer he gets anyway. 

Of course, everybody gets old. Even P.J. His sequel to the above 30 years later is – seriously:

‘How to Drive Fast When the Drugs are Mostly Lipitor, the Wing-Wang needs More Squeezing Than It Used to Before It Gets the Idea, and Spilling Your Drink Is No Problem If You Keep the Sippy Cups from When Your Kids Were Toddlers and Leave the Baby Seat in the Back Seat so that When You Get Pulled Over You Look Like a Perfectly Innocent Grandparent’.

I saw him live, and he was hilarious. The NatLamp guys are going quickly, and I am sad.

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The Reading List (con’t)

  • Transitions, by William Bridges. I am not a self-help book person. Before Heather died, I think the last one I read was What Color Is your Parachute – and that’s because it was a required course at Kent State in 1975. Since then, I’ve read many more, and they’ve been more or less unhelpful. This one was pretty good – it says you have to let your old life go before you can start a new life. Getting a promotion isn’t a transition; retiring – or starting a brand new job – is. Right now I’m in a neutral zone, just drifting along for a while. But that’s OK and it will not last forever.
  • 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die Heather was an old movie buff. I’ve probably seen a quarter of these, but only because of her. Fun read and have IMDB open in your other device.
  • Things To Make And Do In The Fourth Dimension. I discovered this thing called ‘YouTube’ last week, and I’ve been burning through the math stuff. Or, if you’re Matt Parker, the ‘maths’ stuff. Watch him and read the book. A recreational mathematician and comedian? I believe I have found my next career.
  • My Favorites, by Ben Bova. Yes, I am reading four books at once. Do not judge me. Bova was a science fiction god. Six Hugos. 120+ books. One of the last folks to do good short stories, and I adore good short stories.

Up Next

  • The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy. He’s my favorite British Barleywine. Corey and I split a bottle of 2004 at his wedding, and we’ve been to his cottage in Dorset, but I’ve never read his books. It’s about time.
  • A History Of Classical Physics, by J. D. Bernal. Because it’s on my shelf and I’m desperately trying to read down my shelves before I go out and buy more.
  • Oops. I bought more. Last And First Men, by Olaf Stapleton, because I had $1 off of Kindle. Yeah, I need to buy more books. And this is a lightweight easy read. Right. It simply describes two billion years of human history. It’s not like one of his complicated books like Star Maker. which covers the entire history of the universe.

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The Reading List (con’t)

  • Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality, by Frank Wilczek. Nobel prize winner’s book. I have real problems with string theory and SUSE. I fully understand that is precisely like me having problems with a Lacrosse coach’s decisions, given that I’ve never seen a Lacrosse game. I know enough to be able to name the quarks, which I’m sure will impress any college freshman. Nevertheless, I love reading middling-challenging particle physics books. Feynman rulez!!
  • Dark Matter And The Dinosaurs, Lisa Randall. Lisa is much more approachable, and I loved her Warped Passages.
  • Quantum of Nightmares, Charles Stross. How in the world Charlie can have two major series running at the same time – Merchant Princes and Laundry Files – is beyond me. How he can have two of them coming out within three months of each other is impossible. Think Lovecraft meets J.M. Barrie for this one, with heavy emphasis on the Lovecraft.

Next up, I’m going to start on one of the bucket list books. Either Ulysses or Moore’s Jerusalem.

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The Reading List

Just finished:

  • Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson. I’m a big Stephenson fan, but a few of his last have been a little inconsistent. Fall, or Dodge in Hell was just damn painful. He’s back in for on this one, and talking about a technological solution to the climate crisis. Good read. Now, that said – I just finished an audio book:
  • Reamde, by Neal Stephenson. Somehow I missed this one. I enjoyed it very much, and may have to revisit Fall.
  • All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business, by Mel Brooks. Mel’s biography. I’m a fan, and this is a great book. Memoir form from childhood to now, and goes through his productions. The Fly was produced by Mel Brooks? Did not know that. Mel Brooks and David Cronenberg. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Current

  • Invisible Sun, by Charles Stross. The last of his Merchant Prince series. Humans who can walk across alternate timelines (called ‘jaunting’ in the book, although those of us who are Gully Foyle purists know it’s nothing of the kind). Solid ending to a series started more than 20 years ago, with crazy politics in two timelines.
  • The Surgeon’s Mate, Patrick O’Brian. The Aubrey/Maturin sea novels have been on my list to read for a log time; I finally started them mid-2021. The Russel Crowe movie, Captain and Commander, had a family friend as the technical advisor, Andy Reay-Ellers.

Next Up

  • Journey To The Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel by Stephen Budiansky. It’s impossible for me to decide whether to read this or not. Hey, look, a Gödel dad joke! Up in the bucket list is Hofstader’s Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, which has been on the shelf for 20 years. I figure his biography will be a warmup.
  • Unwinding Anxiety, by Judson Brewer. Yeah, retirement is causing me some anxiety. I’ll get over it. Maybe with a self-help book or two tossed in first, though.
  • The Queen’s Gambit, by Walter Tevis. I started playing chess again a couple of years ago. ‘Pushed wood’ back in the 60s/70s, dropped it for 50 years, and then picked it up again. I finally watched the show on Netflix. Nice series, but I had no idea – Walter Tevis? He wrote a couple of books that got made into movies. Like, The Hustler. Color of Money. And… The Man Who Fell To Earth Now that is some range.

And yes. Yes, I am reading two books at once and listening to another. And that was before I retired.