Reading Material for Trip

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1: Murder in the Bastille by Cara Black
Selected because I'm consuming mystery novels like M&Ms at the moment and this one takes place in Paris.

Disposition: While awaiting plane in Tallahassee airport, dragged myself through first two pages; spot-checked pages deeper in book to confirm no improvement in writing style; jettisoned in ladies restroom before takeoff.

2: NY Times Book Review from previous Sunday
Read dutifully from cover to cover on flight to Atlanta to distract myself from being mashed, shoulder to knee, against the same body parts of a gentleman endowed with rather more girth than his seat could accommodate.

Disposition: Deposited in pocket of seat in front of me before deplaning.
(Is it just me or has the content of the NYTBR been flat lately? Perhaps the doldrums of August are lingering still, and no writer of importance wants their book reviewed while readers are still numbed by summer vacation.)

3: “How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?” an article in previous Sunday's NYT Magazine by Paul Krugman
Lest you think I am showing off, let me assure you that despite the illustrious author, this article is a simply written primer that any highschooler could understand on the current state of economic thought now that a situation unpredicted by any prominent theory has come to pass. (I read somewhere that Krugman occasionally weaves an oblique poetic allusion into his essays, but I am not keen enough to notice them.)

Disposition: Read in Atlanta while awaiting flight. Stowed in suitcase to study carefully later and then show off.

4: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
After the first couple of pages, an old memory surfaced: The first time I swam out over the Wakulla Spring, as a teenager, when the visibility through the crystal-clear water was 100 feet or more. From the beach area, I paddled out alone over an undulating field of green river grasses. Suddenly the grasses were gone and the bottom had dropped off into a deep azure void of such beauty and careless majesty that I could hardly look at it...heart pounding and all that.

OK. To be honest, “Hedgehog” did not provoke as strong a reaction as the first sight of Wakulla Spring. But reading its first pages did make me tremble with the anticipation of entering a world where I might find a deeper understanding of...of...what might be happening in other people's heads under unremarkable exteriors.

Disposition: Savored the first chapters during flight to Paris. Tucked into handbag for enjoyment during quiet moments of trip.

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Comments

[Andy]

Thanks
Beautiful.