A Large Pile of Books

This large pile of books will henceforth be called a stack. I have rarely in my reading life had a larger stack of unread books than I do right now. I am still reading at about the same rate I have always read, but with the holidays and my general accumulation the stack has grown to a height rarley seen on my selves. I am both excited about the books and daunted by their number. So as an expirement I have decided to see how long it will take me to read the stack. There are the rules:


1. I may buy only one more book until the stack is gone.
2. I may choose only one book not to read in this stack.


The book stack currently exists as:

The Iceman Cometh, Eugene O'Neill
The Third Man and The Fallen Idol, Graham Greene
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevesky
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ' 72, Hunter S. Thompson
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Edmund Morris
Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris
The Loser, Thomas Bernhard
The Real Life of Sebastain Knight, Vladimir Nabakov
The Deer Park, Norman Mailer
Mason and Dixon, Thomas Pynchon
The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot
Danger on Peaks, Gary Snyder
The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever
Angels in America, Tony Kushner
A History of the Modern Middle East, William L. Cleveland
The Autobiography of Johnny Cash, Johnny Cash

Wish me luck.

The Eve of Twenty-Nine

Long lost are the stories that exude the grace and wit and sensibility of those told to us by generations past. As I sit here, on the eve of my twenty-ninth birthday I find myself turning to stories that make me nostalgic for a time ended decades before my or even my parents own. This nostalgia never fails to force me toward Norman Maclean and the ill-fated heros of his triumphant story: A River Runs Through It. This particular story, more than any other, makes me think of my grandfather. He wasn't a fisherman, he did not cast dry flies over the Blackfoot River, and would never let on that he led the beautiful life depicted on Maclean's pages even if the story were written about him in Heber City, Utah instead of others in Missoula, Montana. This story is more than just the story of the kind of boys my Grandfather grew up with, but his brothers that died too young. They, his brothers, were boys that left families and kids older than my father. These are men I will never really know; as the boys in that story are boys I will never know.

So as I enter my last year of in the 20s. I wax nostalgic for a time and a land long lost.

Bike Riding in December

I think I love el nino. Now, I don't know what causes this weather pattern other than some warming of the oceans. So, somehow, this has got to be tied to Global Climate Change. Please don't mistake what I am saying as discounting the very real problem of Global Warming. I don't know if there is a more serious problem facing, not just humanity, but all the globe's life forms than the obvious changes in global temperatures. I am in favor of any and all attempts to correct the grievous error in our human trajectory.

With that said, today was almost 50 degrees and in New England you can pretty much consider that a friggin' heat wave in December. After some morning xmas shopping, I scurried home to enjoy the fruits of this ridiculous weather. At the beginning of the month I felt I had hung my bike on its rack for the winter and would revisit my two wheeled rocket when the snow melted. Much to my delight this was not the case.

Although my riding legs have begun their winter atrophy I felt better than I would have expected. I rode my normal 20 miler with relative ease even if it wasn't the blistering pace I was accustomed to only a couple short months ago. It felt great and it looks as if I may get at least one more ride this week. These rides are certainly taking place on borrowed time, and right now I will borrow as much as I can.

Ironman World Championships on NBC

Be sure to watch the Ironman World Championships from Kailua Kona today on NBC. 4-6pm EST.

The First Post

This is the first post in what I hope to be many. I currently live in Brookline, MA with my girlfriend, but I am from the Pacific Northwest having spent time in both Portland, OR and Seattle, WA. I studied English and Comparative History of Ideas at the University of Washington. I read a lot of books and participate in triathlons. I enjoy movies and going out to eat. I am considering learning German.

Dacia and Ryan in Maine