(no subject)
I'm currently reading the book The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell. This is the first book of hers I've read; it's about the fourth or fifth in the list of books from Amazon.com that I'm systematically going through. I'm about two-thirds of the way through and I completely love it, so much so that as I was reading it last night I thought to myself: "Why did I wait to read this?" And then "Why did I wait to start reading her at all?" It's absolutely hilarious and fascinating. This is my favorite part so far:
For as long as I can remember, one thing that has always lifted my spirits is research. ... I find looking things up consoling.
When I read that, my heart swelled and I wanted to hug her, because as I very recently figured out, my biggest pet peeve is people who don't do research.
I have to say, if Sarah Vowell had written my history textbooks in highschool (the book is liberally peppered with historical and cultural facts), I would have gotten an A+ in that class (and many, many detentions because I'd be laughing very loudly and very often and disturbing the class).
As I was drifting off to sleep last night after reading some more of it, a partial quote from The Catcher in the Rye popped into my head. It's the kind of book where--and I'm paraphrasing here--"you wish the author was a close personal friend of yours and you could just call him [or her] up on the phone whenever you felt like it."
I kept getting the same feeling while reading Patriot as I got a few months ago when I learned about that extrasolar planet they found (Gliese 576 C, I believe) that was in its star's habitable zone and might just harbor life. (Without the crushing disappointment later on when I learned that the atmosphere was very probably carbon dioxide-based and there was probably a "runaway greenhouse effect.") Or when I hear a really fantastic song.
I must check out more of her stuff.
EDIT: The Partly Cloudy Patriot is my new favorite book (and I still haven't even finished it yet). I haven't changed favorite books since I first read Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger some five years ago.
For as long as I can remember, one thing that has always lifted my spirits is research. ... I find looking things up consoling.
When I read that, my heart swelled and I wanted to hug her, because as I very recently figured out, my biggest pet peeve is people who don't do research.
I have to say, if Sarah Vowell had written my history textbooks in highschool (the book is liberally peppered with historical and cultural facts), I would have gotten an A+ in that class (and many, many detentions because I'd be laughing very loudly and very often and disturbing the class).
As I was drifting off to sleep last night after reading some more of it, a partial quote from The Catcher in the Rye popped into my head. It's the kind of book where--and I'm paraphrasing here--"you wish the author was a close personal friend of yours and you could just call him [or her] up on the phone whenever you felt like it."
I kept getting the same feeling while reading Patriot as I got a few months ago when I learned about that extrasolar planet they found (Gliese 576 C, I believe) that was in its star's habitable zone and might just harbor life. (Without the crushing disappointment later on when I learned that the atmosphere was very probably carbon dioxide-based and there was probably a "runaway greenhouse effect.") Or when I hear a really fantastic song.
I must check out more of her stuff.
EDIT: The Partly Cloudy Patriot is my new favorite book (and I still haven't even finished it yet). I haven't changed favorite books since I first read Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger some five years ago.