(Debby) (writing about reading, but i would actually rather be watching Twin Peaks. Well done, Amanda! Did you buy or library or Netflix? Please please have bought and be about to mail the DVD series to me)

Arthur C. Clark died a few weeks ago. When he died, he was in his late 80s or early 90s, and he had written dozens of science fiction books, some of which were made into movies such as 2001: Space Odyssey. To commemorate his life, I thought I’d check out one of his books from the library. Well, they only had 2 books by him – 2069 (or some year like that – the 3^rd book in that series) and then another book about a war on the Moon. And that was when I remembered that, really, I never liked Arthur C. Clark’s books all that much.

Well, I don’t think it’s disrespectful to his memory to say so. I mean, millions of people loved his books. They were good books, based around good ideas. For me, though, they are just too focused on the hard science of ‘science fiction’ and interested in things that I’m not so much interested in.

So in commemoration of Arthur C. Clark, I checked out a Ray Bradbury book, Golden Apple of the Sun. It’s a collection of short stories. In general, I don’t like to read short stories. The really good ones tend to really upset me. Maybe they pack too much of an emotional punch? And then, you don’t really get the character development that I love so much in novels. Mostly, a short story is about the revealing of some Big Point. But there are always exceptions to every rule, and my exceptions to this rule include fairy tales, folk tales, and the short stories of Ursula K. LeGuin and Ray Bradbury. Ray Bradbury’s best short stories are sentimental and beautiful, and they don’t depend on any gimmicks. They might take place in a spaceship, but they are just as likely to take place in a small town in America or Mexico. My favorite story from this collection follows a middle-aged Mexican man who stands up to fashion photographers determined to photograph a model in front of his house, with its aesthetically cracked foundation.

I’ve never read a Terry Pratchett book. I hear that he is donating a lot of money to Alzeheimer’s research, and that he has been diagnosed with an early version of the disease. From what I understand, he writes funny fantasy books ? Well, my library and the used bookstore don’t have any of his books, which is why I haven’t read him before. But I did recently get a book from the used bookstore (Bookstop Ltd – it’s a great place. Some of the used books are more than I want to / can pay for them, but the collection is wide ranging, the shelves well stocked, they play good music, and the owner is extremely generous in giving credit for returned books) – Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Although I’ve only read one Neil Gaiman book, I loved that book (American Gods) enough to consider myself a Neil Gaiman fan. (oh, and I saw Stardust twice on an airplane, and really thoroughly enjoyed it). Well, Good Omens is a really enjoyable book. A funny, light read, with great characters (including an angel, a demon, and the Anti-Christ who is an 11 year old boy

(Debby)
Katriona – The sequel to Kidnapped (or, as I think of it, Kidnapped! – it has to be said with an exclamation point as far as I am concerned) follows in the same, highly successful vein, only pausing to get, if anything, more wrapped up in Scottish politics and clan concerns. And this time, unlike in Kidnapped!, there are some female characters, who are respectively arch, crude, and fiery. On top of this Extremely Good Time, there is the fact that most of it is written in Scottish brogue, and that they use words like PRODIGAL.

As in, the Prodigal Son. I am ashamed to say that I always assumed that Prodigal meant ‘once gone but now returned and rather contrite and ashamed to be wholly accepted by the generous and selfless love of his father.’ No no. It means “extravagant; wasteful; reckless with money”. I learned that the day before I came across it in Katriona, when I was going though my How To Prepare For The GRE book. Yep, trying to study for the GRE. I’m just really, really excited about Political Ecology and also Social Geography right now. Excited enough that I am willing to re-learn geometry. Will, I haven’t re-learned geometry yet. I’m kind of stuck on fractions (harder than you would think. Fractions! Very tricky). But anyways, I’m thinking that I’d like to go back to school, and even if I don’t do it right away, I would see it happening in the next 3 years (how long GRE scores last), and this seems like as good a time to take the dang thing as ever.

(Debby)
The Known and What I Thought I Knew

Part of the point of a public library is the freedom to pick random books that one doesn’t know anything about. Sometimes this works out great (case in point would be Hyperion). Sometimes…not.

The Table of Everything – Trudy White.

At Goshen College, students can push books (well, more like booklets) through Pinchpenny Press. It’s a great outlet for creative energies and aspirations. I got to edit a Pinchpenny Press book that was a collection of poetry and essays on environment & place. It was great fun, except for laying everything out in that fancy publishing computer program. Three or four years later, I had the odd experience of finding a copy of that book at a Mennonite Relief Sale in Oregon. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

Trudy White, here, took the equivalent of a Pinchpenny Press collection of short stories/reflections/drawings and managed to get a printing press in Australia to publish it. And then it suffered the fate of so many books – it was donated to Book Aid International, and shipped to the Kenyan Library system. I’m not sure how she would feel about that, either. Sadly, it tends not to be a sign of high esteem for a book.

Kidnapped – Robert Louis Stevenson

That’s right – KIDNAPPED! Man, how’s THAT for a blast from the past? Actually, it turned out that I didn’t really know anything about Kidnapped at all – my vague memory of it is actually of Treasure Island, I suspect. There aren’t really any pirates in Kidnapped; there is a shipwreck, but it is short and basically self-inflicted out of ignorance. What there is, is a whole lot of Scottish politics that I am trying very hard to understand but which is just a little bit out of reach. Like, Whigs and Jacobians and MacGregors who go by the name of Drummond because of some feud – actually, there seem to be a lot of inter-clan feuds – and Highlands versus Lowlands and whatnot.

All around, this book is AWESOME!!! Seriously, I cannot think of anything I would want to add or take away from this book. Maybe part of what I like so much is that I have to follow the political bits (which are a huge chunk of the plot – who is a Whig and who is a …um, not a Whig? Something about Kings? and France. Definitely something involving France) as though it is a mystery that I am finding clues for and trying to put it all together. But anyways, I really and truly enjoyed this book, and I am currently reading the sequel, Catriona, and so far it is, if anything, even more wrapped up in Scottish politics, and it is continuing to be awesome.

(Debby responding to Amanda)

Oh I am SO PLEASED that you are taking this Science Fiction film class. I just feel like chortling and rubbing my hands together, it pleases me so much.

So you watched Solaris? YEAH!! I agree - not as long as I had expected. A month or two ago I watched the newer George Clooney version, too. I was glad I'd seen it, although it still didn't have the emotional OOMF that the BBC radio play had. I want to find the novel all these movies are based on - um, it's called Solaris. Written by a Polish dude. Stanislaw Lem? Lev? Something like that.

I really, really, REALLY hope that it is Jeremy Davies you are talking about as being in Season 4 of Lost. I LOVED his character in Solaris - a great change from the older movie. OH LOST SEASON 4 WHY OH WHY ARE YOU OUT OF REACH FOR ME??? Is it Jeremy Davies? No, wait, don't tell me. ARGH!!

So now that I've realized that Eraserhead is NOT the movie with the guy with pins all over his head, I am more open to some day watching it.

(Debby)
on reading modern novels dealing with religion (some more directly than others)

Modern books. Somehow they leave less of a clean feeling than pre-1900 books. Well, but that’s not a bad thing, just more emotionally challenging.

Whit – Iain Banks

The thing about Iain Banks is that he writes unnecessarily horrifying / disturbing books. But he also writes really satisfyingly sweet and all modern pop-like books. I can’t seem to figure out which it is going to be until too late. Happily, this one is interesting and fun, really good characters, nice internally-consistent world of a cult.

Bee Season – Myla Goldberg

Oh it’s great! Not what I was expecting, but great! Jewish mysticism + spelling bee + Hari Krishna + mental illness. Beautiful. I saw a bootleg DVD on the street. I guess they made it into a movie, and with Richard Gere. That’s depressing.

No one belongs here more than you – Miranda July

Short stories, of people who are a little…off. By the time I was done with the book, I was unsettled, uncertain whether I was a little off, too. But nonetheless, I also found it oddly comforting. I mean, it’s true….

“Do you have doubts about life? Are you unsure if it is worth the trouble? Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each person’s face as you pass on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you. They are as much for you as they are for other people. Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing. Stand up and face the east. Now praise the sky and praise the light within each person under the sky. It’s okay to be unsure. But praise, praise, praise.”

Mona Lisa Overdrive – William Gibson

I’m a sucker for William Gibson. I mean, the man invented cyber-punk! Even if his novels aren’t the greatest works of art, they are always worth 100 shillings used. This one sort of revolves around a woman who can access the meta-gods of the internet, or something like that.

Happiness – Will Ferguson

A Canadian writes about what would happen if an American wrote the perfect all-encompassing self-help book. What follows is fluffy fun times! Not worth staying up at night and using to contemplate the meaning of life, but a good time nonetheless. (thanks, Sasha! And for the Miranda July book, too)

(debby)
NORMALITY IS RESTORED!

A good sign that things are getting back to business-as-usual in Nairobi is that the National Public Library's hours are back to normal. They had cut them back significantly since the elections. Open till 6:30pm Monday-Thursday once again. Whew.

The library recently slapped up photocopies of a poster all over the inside and outside of the building. The poster has a picture of a white dude with a furtive look on his face and one hand in his jacket, and at the top it says DON'T STEAL, NEIL!

Ah yes, Nairobi, where 'normal' life as an American means a constant low level barrage of surreal little details.

(Debby)
Perhaps, like me, you have at times wondered: what does Blade have that Buffy doesn’t? Well, now I have watched Blade (the first movie only). As far as I can tell, here are the answers to that age old question:

- a heck of a lot more F-bombs. Lots and lots.
- Kris Kristofferson. But, all things considered, I’m not so sure that that is a loss on the side of Buffy, at least in this film. Although there is a good moment of him listening to Creedence.
- Wesley Snipes’s awesome haircut. It is seriously awesome.
- Wesley Snipes – You know, he’s just taking this thing way seriously. And good for him.
- vampires being out in the daytime through the magic of sunblock. tsk, tsk, people.
- Stephen Dorff’s skinny white chest
- Wesley Snipes speaking Russian