May Books Bought

It's been so crazy around here this month, I only bought a few books. Actually six, which is pretty remarkable for me. Here they are with justifications for their purchase. I'm also including a new feature: how much I spent for each book. (Yikes!)




A few weeks ago I helped a patron with a "What Should I Read Next?" mystery/crime fiction search and Ian Rankin's name came up. I'd heard of Rankin, seen his titles around, but never picked one up until now. (Yes, working in a library can be a dangerous thing.) Knots & Crosses is the first in a series of novels featuring Edinburgh Detective Sergeant John Rebus. By many accounts, Knots & Crosses is not the best entry in the series, but it is the first and I do like to start a series at the beginning whenever possible. This is a British edition for sale at one of my favorite haunts, Daedalus Books. Mass Market Paperback - Price: $3.98



I discovered Mal Peet's Tamar in a Reader's Advisory workshop a few weeks ago. Participants paired up and described a book they really enjoyed, including the specific aspects of the book they liked. The other participant's assignment was to find similar books using various library resources. My partner did a great job of convincing me to read Tamar, a YA novel subtitled "A Novel of Espionage, Passion and Betrayal." It's also winner of the Carnegie Medal. (If you're interested, the book I talked about was Jeffrey Ford's The Shadow Year.) Hardcover - Price: $4.98


Good-Bye Chunky Rice by Craig Thompson appeared on a list of VOYA's best graphic novels from the last several years. Okay, I admit it, I saw it at Daedalus and acted on impulse. Trade Paperback - Price: $3.98








I really like Washington Post writer Michael Dirda's writing. Classics for Pleasure is clear, concise, full of wit, imagination and passion. (Passion about books, that is.) Dirda can take a title you have absolutely no interest in and convince you in two pages that it's a book you must read. Another dangerous guy to have around. Hardcover - Price: $7.95





Healing for a Broken World: Christian Perspectives on Public Policy by Steve Monsma is the text for a class I'm planning on taking this fall. It's really more of a study than a class, a group of people interested in how Christians can make a difference in the culture. Trade Paperback - Price - $11.55








Culture Shift: Engaging Current Issues with Timeless Truth by R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is a thin book packed with lots of thoughtful ideas on how Christianity impacts (or doesn't impact) our cultural climate. (And yes, I'm spending a good bit of time thinking about Christianity and culture.) Hardcover - Price: $10.49





Total Spent on Books in May: $42.93

Next time: The books I actually read in May

Absolutely Crazy

(This post is for all three of you in my worldwide audience.)

Sorry about a lack of posting, but things have been absolutely crazy lately with our 12th wedding anniversary, last weekend's church retreat, books, work and other stuff. During the next two weeks, I plan to:

Visit my new niece in Chicago
Interview for a full-time job at the library
Buy a new computer (a Mac - may Microsoft perish in flames)
Work on a major church project
Revise two chapters of my YA novel
Send out a new story
Take my first golf lesson
Read two more YA novels (besides mine)
Work

Plus tonight's two-hour season finale of Lost, the only television I consistently watch. More when things slow down including Books Bought and Read for May.

Burger Wuss (YA 1999) - M.T. Anderson

Burger Wuss reminds me of some of those early John Hughes movies from the 80s like Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, only smarter and funnier. Anderson either remembers what it's like to be a teenager or he's very observant. Or maybe both.

Sixteen-year-old Anthony has just lost the love of his life to Turner, a sadistic four-time Employee-of-the-Month at a fast-food joint called O'Dermott's (which has many similarities to a certain unnamed franchise that features a large yellow letter of the alphabet between L and N). The best way to exact revenge, Anthony decides, is to get a job at O'Dermott's working right alongside Turner. But since this is not only fiction, but teen fiction, things can go wildly off-course.

It's not long before Anthony finds himself in the middle of a fierce rivalry between O'Dermott's and cross-town fast-food rival Burger Queen (in one of the funniest softball games ever captured in print). He also strikes up a friendship (or is it a partnership?) with Shunt, a homeless co-worker seeking to topple the restaurant's corporate structure, if at all possible, by anarchy. Add to the mix two clueless parents, two sickeningly in-love coworkers and a manager with way too much corporate spirit.

Burger Wuss is a hilarious, yet sympathetic look at teenage love and revenge, filled with clever dialogue and authenticity. All of Anderson's novels are wildly different from one another, but they all feature top-notch writing. For newcomers, Burger Wuss is a great, entertaining place to start.

A Few Thoughts on YA Novels

I'm on track to finish reading at least four YA/J-Fic novels this month, which is by no means a huge amount, but compared to most months, quite significant for me. What I'm discovering is that some writers remember what it was like to be a teen and can transfer those memories into the here-and-now of the 21st century. But some don't and can't. (I certainly don't want to fall into that category.)

M.T. Anderson either remembers what it was like to be a teenager or he's very observant of teenagers (or maybe both). I'm almost finished with Burger Wuss, a tale of teenage revenge at a fast-food restaurant. Even though the book is nearly ten years old (which qualifies as ancient history in YA literature), Anderson's portrayal of teen angst, betrayal, injustice, humor, satire and the general rollercoaster of emotions are spot on. He understands.

So does Ann Dee Ellis. Her debut novel This is What I Did: rings true to what I've seen in encountering teenagers in 15 years of teaching.

But I've sampled other novels that are disappointing in their portrayal of teens, some of which feel like Wally and Beaver have been dropped into 2008 America. While the characters aren't perfect, they're a little too noble and unrealistic, children of parents who stepped out of a Father Knows Best episode. The stories themselves aren't bad, but appear to have been written by good writers who maybe haven't been around kids for awhile.

The lesson for me as a writer is to observe teens more, to try to understand their motivations, desires, needs (You get the opportunity to do that at the info desk, believe me.) and make that appear on the page.

As a reader, I'm finding that the literature is as broad as in any genre. It's all over the place and seems to be expanding further every day. That's probably a good thing, if you can find the time to discover more of it and separate the wheat from the chaff.

The Weekend, VOYA and Rejection

Quite a weekend. Cindy played a great concert last night with the McLean Symphony and successfully finished a half-marathon today. Medieval Mania went over quite well at the library yesterday (I dressed up as a monk - hopefully pictures to follow) and a great time was had by all. Plus I read a pretty good YA book, This is What I Did: by Ann Dee Ellis.

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I'm strongly considering buying a subscription to VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates): The Library Magazine Serving Those Who Serve Young Adults. I flipped through an issue yesterday at the desk when things were slow. Sure, the library gets the magazine and I could read it for free at the desk, but it's probably something I'll want to have at home as well. From what I saw, the articles and reviews are quite impressive.

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Ah, it feels like old times: Yesterday I got my first rejection letter in several weeks. I just haven't been sending much out lately, but I'm hoping to change that with a couple of new stories, hopefully one new story a month. That's not a huge amount, but it's better than I've been doing. Plus the novel is still moving right along.

Boys and Reading

The other night a boy who looked about twelve or thirteen came up to the info desk looking for a book like the one he’d just read, Stetson by S.L. Rottman. I asked him what he liked about the book and he told me it has a boy narrator and features cars. He also said he likes books that are set in the real world, preferring them to fantasy or science fiction (which completely cuts out what little expertise in the J-Fic/YA areas I have).

So I went to one of our databases that gives book recommendations based on books you’ve already read and enjoyed. The first search produced mostly books by or about girls (maybe because Rottman is a woman) and the patron wasn’t interested in any of them. I couldn’t really blame him; none of them exactly matched his interests.

Of course databases aren’t perfect, so we tried another one. The only book this one found similar to Stetson was Stetson.

“I also like spy stories,” he said, sensing that he probably wasn’t going to find what he really wanted. We found a few spy books and he seemed content. But I wasn’t.

I was disappointed with the database experience, but mostly disappointed with my lack of knowledge in the area of boys’ books. The database searches I’ve used in the past are usually very good and quite accurate, so I wasn’t sure if this was a database glitch or what. (I also found two reference books on books for boys. For both, the latest editions were ten years old. There is a recently published book on good reads for boys, but it's $45.)

The next day I related this story to a librarian. She just nodded and said, “There just aren’t that many books written for boys that age.” This led to a discussion on why boys tend not to read as much as girls, how that drives the market, and lots of other things.

I recently listened to a Washington Post Book World podcast that cited a study done in Wisconsin on the reading habits of children. The study cited that on average, third-graders read about 40 books a year. By the time those kids reach high school, they’re only finishing four books a year. (Of course you have to consider that most books on a third-grade level are fairly thin.) What the study didn’t show was a breakdown by sex.

Okay, so I think we can assume that as boys get older, they read less. Is that due to sports, video games, attitudes that “Reading isn’t cool” or all of the above? Whatever the reasons, it’s frustrating.

I guess that’s one of the reasons I wrote a YA novel. (Yeah, I’m still revising….) Although it’s fantasy, it’s the type of story that I would have liked as a YA reader. Maybe someone else will like it. (Let’s first see if a publisher will like it.) I’d sure love to see more YA books with boy protagonists, but is there anybody out there to read them? The Harry Potter series is finished. The Series of Unfortunate Events is also finished. Are boys reading other books or simply moving on to sports and video games? And can you do anything about it?

Frustrating.

Sunstroke and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley

I first heard of Tessa Hadley through a podcast of The New York Times Book Review (or maybe it was the Washington Post Book World podcast - I subscribe to both). Although she has published three novels, Sunstroke and Other Stories appears to be her first collection. All of the book's ten stories are narrated by women in middle to upper-class British settings. There's certainly nothing unusual in that, but what is unusual is how Hadley explores relationships.

All of the relationships in the book are problematic for one reason or another. In the title story, one of two married women on holiday considers an affair with a visitor. In "The Surrogate," a young college student falls in love with her professor, but settles for an affair with a man who simply looks like the instructor. In "Mother's Son," a woman who hears her son's confession that he's cheating on his girlfriend finds herself confronted by the girlfriend herself.

Each story includes a "moment of truth" in which a decision of some kind has to be made. There's little time to consider the immediate consequences of those decisions, but many years (sometimes decades) to reflect on their aftermath. And in some cases second chances present themselves.

Much of Hadley's work is focused on those dizzying moments of indecision when what we want is waging a war against what we know is wrong. Hadley knows that when you're in the midst of such moments, it's almost impossible to balance desire, pain, regret, joy and sorrow. But reading these stories makes it clear that she's been there.

Ten short stories (few are over 20 pages) covering 177 pages - Well worth your time.

Cranking Up Lost and Listening to Annoying Singers

Some people really give me a hard time when I tell them we don't have cable TV. I tell them the only TV show I watch is Lost, which has really been interesting lately. I'm also glad it now comes on at 10PM EST on Thursdays, giving me a little unwind time from late shifts at the library.

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While we're waiting for Lost to roll around on the ol' tube, check out The Ten Most Annoying Singers.

Library Encounters

This is the stuff I love:

I'm at the information desk yesterday when a man - probably in his early 60s - walks in, takes a look around like he's lost and slowly approaches the desk.

"What can we do for you today?" I ask.

He leans in close like he's afraid someone besides me will hear him. "My son says I should come in and get a library card, use the library. I've never even been in a library before."

"Well, I'm glad you came in," I tell him and help him get started with the application for a library card. He provides all the correct information and in a couple of minutes we're done.

"That was quick," he said. I hand him his card and explain the different types of material we have, how long he can check them out. I tell him how he can use his card to access the Internet, renew/place holds online, etc. I stop when he looks a bit overwhelmed.

"I don't really know how to use a computer."

"We can get you started," I tell him. "We offer one-on-one training on how to use the Internet, search the catalogue, our library databases," etc.

"How much does it cost?"

"It's free. Would you like for me to sign you up?"

He's still got a little uncertainty, but I can see that he's beginning to realize coming to the library wasn't such a bad idea, that maybe his son has been on to something all this time.

He signed up and looked like a kid who'd just won a lifetime supply of candy. I gave him a welcome packet, explained the essentials and told him to let us know if he had any questions. He walked out beaming.

I've only been working at the info desk for a few months, but this isn't the first time I've had such an encounter. I guess we tend to forget that most library patrons come to the library as kids, get a card and come in on a more-or-less regular basis. It's a big step for an adult with grown children to come in and want to change something about their lives, even if it's only getting a library card and signing up for computer training. Maybe it's just the geek in me, but it's exciting to see.

Okay, end of Feel-Good Story #523

Introducing the "No-Nabokov-Before-Breakfast" Rule

Helpful Writing Tip - It's always a good idea to read Nabokov after you've done your writing for the day, otherwise despair will set in. (And these are the early stories I'm reading.)

I'm also reading Tessa Hadley's collection Sunstroke and Other Stories. I'd never heard of Hadley until I listened to a podcast (either the New York Times Book Review or Washington Post Book World, I can't remember - but you should check out both) that featured the author.

April Books Read

April turned out to be a pretty good reading month, not as intense as March, but definitely respectable, especially considering that I am not a fast reader.


Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (NF 2007) - Tim Weiner
Discussed earlier here.











What Jesus Demands from the World (NF 2006) - John Piper
Just who is Jesus and just what does he expect from people? All people? Piper always does a great job of making theological issues clear and simple without watering things down. My men's group read this from February to April and while we questioned a couple of Piper's thoughts, we all found the book enlightening.




Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets (NF 2008) - Sudhir Venkatesh
You might remember Venkatesh from one of the chapters in Freakonomics. He's the sociology grad student who walked into one of Chicago's worst neighborhoods carrying a clipboard with questionaires asking people "What's it like to be poor and black?" without getting killed himself. Venkatesh's book is eye-opening, entertaining, sad, and impressive all at once, giving the reader an idea of how a gang actually operates. You might be surprised by what you read. My only problem with the book: Vankatesh just couldn't be as naive as he portrays himself.



The Dangerous Act of Worship: Living God's Call to Justice (NF 2007) - Mark Labberton
Labberton calls Christians to extend their worship of God beyond the worship service, beyond the walls that separate us from the homeless, the heart-broken, the needy - the people we either can't or don't want to see in our lives. A very bold (and convicting) book.






A Clockwork Orange (1962) - Anthony Burgess
A modern classic and rightfully so, o my brothers. This futuristic tale of violence run amok and the oppressive means to control it became both a blessing and a curse in Burgess's lifetime (Be sure to read his Foreword in the Norton edition.) and even more so after Stanley Kubrick's film version in 1972. Don't be put off by the slang used in the book; you'll get used to it as you go along.





The Black Ice (1993) - Michael Connelly
Connelly has become one of my favorite crime fiction writers during the past few years. This is the second book (after The Black Echo) in the Detective Harry Bosch series, finding Bosch trying to solve the apparent suicide of a fellow police officer.







Mister Pip (2006) - Lloyd Jones
Shortlisted for the 2007 Booker Prize, Mister Pip is a coming-of-age story set on an unnamed tropical island in the 1990s. Young Maltilda discovers the Pip of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations from the teachings of her classroom instructor Mr. Watts, the only while man on the island. While I enjoyed much of the book (especially watching Matilda encounter the love and power of the printed word), the presence of the invading redskin soldiers and the aftermath of their invasion felt too manipulated. Still recommended, though.





No Country for Old Men (2005) - Cormac McCarthy
This was even better the second time I read it. While I think Blood Meridian is a better book (possibly even a masterpiece), No Country for Old Men may be my favorite McCarthy book. If you've only seen the movie, you owe it to yourself to read the novel. While the two versions share many similarities, there are some very interesting differences.




Free for All: Oddballs, Geeks and Gangstas in the Public Library (NF 2007) - Don Bochert
A hilarious and sometimes sad look at the strange and wonderful things that happen in a public library. Bochert was part of the Los Angeles County library system, which is quite different from ours, but I still found myself nodding in several places thinking, "I can relate, man, I can relate."





Like the Stars: Leading Many to Righteousness (NF 2004) - Glenn Parkinson
A great look at how Christians can impact the culture without taking it by force. (More on this topic in the future.)









Ella Minnow Pea (2001) - Mark Dunn
Definitely the most fun I've had with a novel this month. A few thoughts on this novel in letters here.





That's it for April. Go read something.

April Books Bought

Since I've seriously begun saving for a new computer, book purchasing has been somewhat curtailed. But I still found a few coins lurking here and there around the house, enough to buy the following:





Tell My Horse: Voodoo Life in Haiti and Jamaica - Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston's account of her travels to Haiti and Jamaica, where she not only observed but actually participated in several Voodoo rituals. This book was mentioned by Andy Duncan, writer of the superb short story "Zora and the Zombie."







On Stranger Tides - Tim Powers
I'm glad Subterranean Press published a nice hardcover edition of this hard-to-find Powers title at a VERY reasonable price. This edition isn't signed and has no extras, but it's still good news for Powers fans.










Share Your Master's Happiness - Glenn Parkinson
This quarter's pick for our bi-weekly Men's Study Group. (Parkinson is also our pastor.)









Starting Friction - Tenea D. Johnson
Collection of poetry from friend and fellow Clarion 2004 graduate Tenea D. Johnson.













Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God - Bob Kauflin
Another book I wanted to read dealing with the role of worship in the church.








Black Belt Librarians: Every Librarian's Real World Guide to a Safer Workplace - Warren Graham
Graham's training workshop yesterday was informative and well-presented. So much so that I bought a copy of his book.

Coming Attractions

Thanks largely to my soon-to-be-replaced slow computer, there's not enough time to report everything going on, but here are a few things on the horizon:

The aforementioned new computer that I hope to purchase soon, an iMac

Today's Black Belt Librarian training (I kid you not)

April's Books Purchased (quite scant this month)

April's Books Read (not at good as March, but still respectable)

Thoughts on the new DVD release of Bonnie and Clyde

A Few Thoughts on No Country for Old Men (SPOILERS)

Recently I re-read and re-watched No Country for Old Men. I suppose I wanted both to see if the book and film versions were as good as I remembered them and how they differed.

The film is amazingly faithful in many ways to the novel, yet differs in some interesting points. Much of the novel's scattered narration by Sheriff Bell is incorporated in the film through dialogue. I never felt the narration in the novel was in any way artificial, but the Coen Brothers have placed many of Bell's thoughts and worldview seamlessly into conversations with his wife, deputy, and friends.

Some scenes (and characters) are completely eliminated, such as the young hitchhiker Moss picks up in the last third of the novel. The Coens wisely cut her character out of the film. While she does serve a purpose in the book, there's no room for her story in the film. In fact including it would probably result in a lack of focus, something I've never seen the Coens do.

But I want to focus on two differences in the book/film versions:

Chigurh has an extended conversation with Carla Jean Moss in her house, just after she's buried her mother. Llewelyn is already dead and Chigurh has found Carla Jean, ready to make good on his promise to kill her, although her death will change nothing other than to satifsy Chigurh's twisted moral code. In the book, Carla Jean recognizes the inevitability of her situation, is resigned to it for a time, then pleads with Chigurh for her life.

Initially I thought this was a very strong scene in the novel that lets the reader in on not what drives Carla Jean, but what drives Chigurh. I didn't count words, but I believe this the most Chigurh says in any one scene. When I first saw the film, I felt the Coens had gyped the audience: here's where we really get to see what drives Chigurh, but most of it doesn't make it into the film.

Now that I read/see it again, I think the film version of this scene is the stronger of the two. Carla Jean is scared in the film version, but she doesn't wimper and fall apart. In the film, when Chigurh flips the coin and Carla Jean refuses to call it, there's a brief shot of Bardem that shows us, just for a second, that refusal is something he's never considered. It's very quick, but it's there.

That scene comes at the perfect time. Maybe it causes Chigurh to reflect as he's leaving the house, but maybe I'm reading more into it than is there. Regardless, the next scene, where Chigurh's car gets smashed by another driver, is important.

Initially I thought the scene was an incredible cheap shot. I didn't remember how it had happened in the book until my friend Trent reminded me. In the book, Chigurh is slammed by a car (or was it a truck?) of Mexicans who had run a red light. In the film, Chigurh is driving away from Carla Jean's house when he looks in the rearview mirror to see two boys riding bicycles. It distracts him for just a moment. You would think that when he looks up, he would see the car passing underneath a red light, but it's green. He's in the right. But a station wagon rams into him for no apparent reason other than the guy ran a red light. I still think that's too coincidental. All it would have taken for me is to have had that light turn red. I'd like to think Chigurh was not only distracted by the boys but also by Carla Jean's refusal to play his game, to buy into his wacked-out worldview, even at the cost of her life.

I could write much more, but it's time to go to work. In the meantime, everybody have a good weekend and watch out for guys flipping coins.

Multi-Tasking, Man, Multi-Tasking

Whew! It's getting a little crazy around here... Cindy and I are Aunt and Uncle once again - our niece Maria was born on Monday and is doing great (as is Cindy's sister). Plus I'm getting lots of hours at the libraries, researching/shopping for a new computer, working on several home projects, other family stuff, schlepping a few books and getting stuff ready for a new project at church. And of course reading.

In the next day or two I hope to write about both the book and film versions of No Country for Old Men, which I have recently re-read and re-watched. Until then...

Cormac Strikes Again

Here's an email I got yesterday:

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy have also purchased Best Books for Boys: A Resource for Educators (Children's and Young Adult Literature Reference) by Matthew D. Zbaracki. For this reason, you might like to know that Best Books for Boys: A Resource for Educators (Children's and Young Adult Literature Reference) will be released on April 30, 2008.


Best Books for Boys: A Resource for Educators (Children's and Young Adult Literature Reference)
Matthew D. Zbaracki
Price: $45.00

Release Date: April 30, 2008

Okay, I don't know about you, but I think that's stretching it a bit. Maybe little Johnny on the cover there is thumbing through Blood Meridian, salivating over the scalping scenes, wondering what it would be like to have his chest ripped apart by a barrage of bullets, but I doubt it. So what's the correlation here? After reading Blood Meridian am I supposed to have some deep burning desire to calm some kid down with a Lloyd Alexander book? Hey, maybe Cormac McCarthy will write a J-Fiction novel called No Country for Young Punks.

On a slightly more serious note, I was in a library not long ago (not in the same county where I work) and saw Blood Meridian in the teen section. I also saw Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. These books weren't incorrectly shelved; there were multiple copies. And I'm pretty sure the copies of The Things They Carried had "7" stickers (for seventh grade) along the spines.

Is someone assigning middle and high school kids to read books like Blood Meridian and The Things They Carried? Don't get me wrong, these are both great books and I imagine lots of high school kids could handle them, but middle school kids? My question is what are they not teaching in order to teach these books? I don't mean to be a prude, but seems a little odd to me.

Or maybe Cormac is just expanding his territory...

Fill 'er Up?

For someone who considers himself politically apathetic, I sure seem to be dipping into books with political implications lately (Legacy of Ashes, Fiasco). This morning I listened to a podcast of NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross (my favorite radio voice). She was interviewing Michael Klare, author of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet. (You can listen on your computer or hear the podcast here.)

Klare says that although we hear a lot about our dependence on oil from the Middle East, Russia and Venezuela are also major players, all of which is creating a huge international mess. What's even more troubling is China, who, according to Klare, has only one major source of energy: coal. (If you're not sure what happens when you burn tons and tons of coal, ask Al Gore.)

I really have no justification for this belief (other than being a dreamer), but I have to think that eventually someone is going to come up with a viable alternative energy source that will severely diminish (if not eliminate) our dependence on oil. I have a good friend who is a scientist in D.C. who assures me that large amounts of time, energy and manpower are working on the problem. I just hope it's not too far off and that the cure isn't worse than the disease.

Family, Friends, Writing and Libraries

Not only is my niece Alex turning one week old today, she also has a blog. (She's a surprisingly good writer!)

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My Clarion friend Tenea has a new book of poetry out. C'mon, everybody needs some poetry in their lives. Check her out!

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Revisions on the YA novel continue, but revising Chapter Three is like digging a tunnel through a mountain. This looks like the chapter I repeated myself in the most. (I must've really liked what I was writing.) But at least my characters and their motivations are becoming clearer as are many of the story's details. Chipping away....

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Did you know that not only is this week National Library Week, today is also National Library Workers Day. To celebrate, I'm reading

Free for All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library by Don Borchert. What could be a better way to spend the day?

There May Be Some Changes Around Here...

For the first 4.75 years of my PC's life, things were pretty good, but lately the problems have been increasing faster than the national debt. I bought an Apple computer waaaaaaaay back in 1994 and used it until 2000, when Cindy and I were given a ThinkPad from her dad, which we used until we got our current Gateway.

But I think its time has come.

I've done a fair amount of PC vs. Mac research this week and intend to do more in the coming weeks, but so far, I'm leaning toward a Mac (a desktop, not a laptop). I know they're more expensive than PCs, but the OS 10.5 Leopard looks pretty tempting, especially with Boot Camp, which will allow me to run Windows programs from my backup drive, Time Machine (a backup drive built in to the Mac), plus a whole slew of other features.

Apple claims (and I'd like to hear your stories, Mac users) that viruses are almost non-existent on Macs, which would certainly be a nice change.

We have also had tons of problems with viewing/editing/sending/even looking at our photos. With all these new nieces in our family, Cindy and I are accumulating tons of photos, most of which we can't easily access.

I'm convinced that my iPod problems are not due to iTunes, but problems with my computer.

So what do we want out of a new computer other than word processing and Internet access?

Easier photo access and manipulation including the ability to create/edit movies.

Easier iPod/MP3 usage.

Speed.

Freedom (as much as possible) from viruses.

Programs that won't crash every time you use them.

Maybe do some podcasts.

Bottom line: If a Mac is going to give me fewer hassles and longer life than a PC, I don't mind spending the extra money.

So what do you say? PC or Mac? Why?

Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA by Tim Weiner

According to Tim Weiner's history of the Central Intelligence Agency, the problem with American intelligence is two-fold:

#1 We don't know what we're doing.

#2 If you can't understand a situation, then change it.

Weiner's history of the Agency begins with its inception on the heels of Pearl Harbor, focusing on a livid President Harry Truman, vowing that such a surprise attack on U.S. soil would never happen again. Truman wanted intelligence from well-trained men and he wanted it quickly. What he got, says Weiner, wasn't quite what he wanted.

With the threat of Communism growing after the end of World War II, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan and the CIA all became major players in the Cold War. The problem for the agency became one of intelligence. Far too often, field agents literally didn't know what they were doing. They didn't understand the languages and cultures they were in, a problem that only got worse in Korea, Vietnam, Central America and now, Iraq. (See #1) Rather than fixing the problem, the Agency spent billions on mostly failed covert operations, pumped money into foreign governments, and financed regimes that would champion U.S. interests. (See #2) Few lessons were learned from Vietnam and apparently no one in the CIA expected to see the Cold War end for economic (not military) reasons. Yet for all its failures, the Agency frequently enjoyed a stellar public reputation.

Weiner's documentation of the early days of the CIA and it's operations seems stronger and more credible than in later years, possibly due to the large amounts of declassified documents from that time. In comparison, sections on Agency activity from the Reagan administration to the present are quite thin. And the author spends almost no time examining how the Agency interacted (or failed to interact) with other government agencies.

As you might expect, Weiner has faced an enormous amount of criticism as a result of Legacy of Ashes, including claims that he has misinterpreted much of the information from the 50,000 documents he examined (many of them recently declassified for the first time), dwelling on negatives and distorting agency achievements. Even so, this was both a fascinating and discouraging book to read. I've encountered very few people who have read it, but I hope they do, whether they agree or disagree with Weiner's findings.