viajando05

No more long lists. Just what's current. Today's topics are everything you ever wanted to know about Sudan and its neighbors, including the lost boys, politics, history, and religion. You'll have to check out the Aquila page to find out why. Otherwise I'm also pre-reading novels for the Little Noisy People. I went to meet-the-teacher night for all three -- only to find out that they all read way above level, and the teachers want them in challenging books. I'm checking out a few things.

 Once you become a publisher of books, you no longer have time to actually read books. How sad. I loved Pat Conroy's new book, South of Broad. He returned to all the decadent South and luscious descriptive writing of Prince of Tides. Welcome back, Pat. I also read Diana Gabaldon's 7th book in the Outlander series. I actually love her books but joined the crowd in outrage as she ended this one. She hasn't dropped quality in any way at all. It just ended weird.

Eight months later I still love my Kindle. I don't use it for everything, but it's so convenient. I like that many books are a third the price in a store. I have even recently downloaded a couple of reference books. After all the trouble I had downloading in Malta, I'm going to order the new international one eventually. But the fact is, with a laptop and perseverence, you can download internationally on the current version too.

Signings

This isn't about a book signing, but it's interesting. We saw Ken Burns the other night at our speaker series -- our last one. We'll miss Diana Ross due to traveling. Burns was incredibly articulate and had a good video presentation. He is currently hyping his brand new series for fall about America's National Park system. It's a six-episode series about the history of the national parks, how Teddy Roosevelt helped start them, etc. It looks pretty good. He told a wonderful story about his father, a seemingly disconnected and dysfunctional person (aren't we all?) who only really stepped up one time in his whole life to parent. But the weekend adventure into the Shenandoah Valley was a defining moment for Burns' life and career.

Over their Shoulder

You know I love to watch what other people are reading, no matter where I go. Here are some recent observations:

David and I had dinner downtown recently at Daddy Jack's, one of our favorite Dallas restaurants. During dinner I looked out the window and noticed the valet, leaning against a post and reading a hardback book. When we left, I asked him to show it to me -- an autobiography of Yogananda.

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Another day we were in an old, dusty antique shop in east Texas. The young lady behind the counter was reading Hamlet, of all things. She's not in school; she just wanted to read it for pleasure. Anyone reading Hamlet for pleasure has to be cool, right?