(no subject)
I went down to Ed McKays on my lunch break to see if they had the bookclub book (they didn't) but they did have some seriously nerdy books:
Wanderlust - a history of walking
The ability to walk on two legs over long distances distinguishes Homo sapiens from other primates, and indeed from every other species on earth. That ability has also yielded some of the best creative work of our species: the lyrical ballads of the English romantic poets, composed on long walks over hill and dale; the speculations of the peripatetic philosophers; the meditations of footloose Chinese and Japanese poets; the exhortations of Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman.
Fields Without Dreams-Defending the Agrarian Idea:
Classicist, professor, and farmer Hanson chronicles the decline of small-scale agriculture in the Central Valley of California. He takes his classics seriously, likening the raisin farmers of Modesto to Aeschylus' ideal virtuous man, who "did not wish to seem just, but to be so."
Waiting For Aphrodite -Journeys Into The Time Before Bones (Sue Hubbell is freakin' AWESOME)
a free-roaming survey of the busy lives of invertebrates
A Year In The Maine Woods :
With his pet raven Jack, he began his sojourn at the end of May. His cabin, without electricity or plumbing, sat in a clearing a half-mile up a steep brush-filled hill accessible only to four-wheel-drive vehicles.