Hi! Well, I’m pretty late in this, but here’s a list of the books read last month.
Read less in July, and am on track to read much less here in August. Not sure how much of that is life getting in the way and what might be that I’m catching up with the too-long-denied need to be reading.
Um
Windswept
Dark Banquet
The Left Hand Of Darkness
To Kill a Mockingbird
Um. . .: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean
Book covers many different types of verbal blunders – freudian slips, malapropisms .. and, of course, ‘um’. Of course, for the several weeks that I was reading the book I was terribly prone to making these mistakes, and I can still derail myself in a conversation by suddenly hearing myself. Not recommended if you’re about to give a presentation.
However, very interested insofar as the history of these things goes, and even more so for the linguistic theory. One such theory; that what we have classified as verbal errors (‘um’) are better understood as a secondary conversation track; meta information about the conversation. To help our listeners, when we are going to rephrase something, shift the topic … we signal these shifts through these ‘errors.’
Interesting .. and I have a deep seated respect for the researchers who compiled the thousands and thousands of examples necessary for doing these statistical studies. My mind boggles at the data entry alone.
Windswept: The Story of Wind and Weather
I’ve read several books on wind, or on natural science in general with chapters on wind. This was a good addition to that set of readings. The approach he used – which was interesting and effective – was to track the development of Hurricane Ivan. Each category began with Ivan – a random thunderstorm swirling in Africa, a slowly rotating storm drifting over the Canary Islands, a rapidly intensifying hurricane in the mid Atlantic … and then each chapter talks about wind science as relevant to that story.
It was an interesting approach, and one that worked to help keep my interest. He also worked in personal stories (Hurricane Ivan wound up at his doorstep, so he had a certain personal interest in that hurricane). It was well written.
It was mostly about hurricanes, wind and rain, instead of being broadly about wind. Covered monsoons .. and briefly admitted to tornadoes .. but didn’t discuss dust storms, for instance. So I might have retitled it The Story of Wind, Rain, and Weather. But that’s a quibble. It was a good and interesting read.
Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures
You can optionally have the library remember what you check out, so you can get recommendations and such. I have opted out because I’m twitchy. But at times like this, I’m glad I’m opted out. I’ve been on this bizarre vampire bender, and I’d hate to think of what they’d extrapolate about my reading interests. (And yes, I have Twilight on hold. Am going to read it, after many recommendations to do so. But it isn’t currently available, thus the hold.)
So, anyway, latest vampire book. Was primarily about three obligate blood feeders – vampire bats, leeches, and bedbugs. Did not cover mosquitoes because, as he says, they’re not blood feeders as a species, just the female as a pre-egg-laying protein boost. He did have a end chapter talking about other blood eating animals, ticks and chiggers and mites and – get this – finches. That totally freaked me out. The Galapagos Islands, famed for all their specialized finches, have a finch species that Drinks Blood. (ewwwww). They are also known as the sharp-beaked finch, and they peck at large birds till the bleed, and then lap the blood. (ewwwwwww) They are not true vampires, they eat berries and worms and whatever else normal finches eat .. but given some pressure, food source changes, species moving around .. they’re on their way. Except, of course, that they’re horribly endangered. Sigh.
This book was tremendously interesting. Packed full of details and tidbits and some truly truly disgusting stuff. Some of the historical uses of leeches … were wrong on many levels. And I absolutely do not recommend reading anything about bedbugs while you’re getting ready to sleep in a bed. Not at all relaxing.
Yes, I threw in a little sci-fi classic. I hadn’t read it, saw it in a used book store for $2 …. was good. Well written, Ursula K LeGuin (of Earthsea). Surficially a first contact book, but the twist was in the full androgany of the native population.
Recommended as a fun little sci-fi read.
This was the Denver Reads book. They pick a book, we’re all supposed to read it together and possibly discuss it at book clubs and such. They generally pick a nice general book, and this was no exception. But I like this book – and it’s been a long time – and Kevin hadn’t read it. So he bought a copy. And we both read it.
And it really does deserve its classic status. I like rereading classics; they grow as you do.
Someday, when I have real time to read, I’m going to come back to these reviews to find interesting books to read.
I agree, Chris… though, of course I could be reading and always intend to read some of these books and almost never actually do. I still love the reviews. And still intend to read some of these books.