Arterial Blockage

Coming out of two years of school and other consuming endeavors has been akin to clearing an arterial blockage; everything rushes ahead faster than ever, compelled by physical law to catch up with the gears that never stopped turning. The two years that I spent reading textbooks (or not - at the least, I was mentally attending to classroom concepts) blocked out mental space that I would have otherwise loaned to nonfiction reading on subjects of interest to me (the one that did consistently get through was investing). I recently breezed through Creation: Life and How to Make It, and I believe that it has begged that I traverse at least two other books - Consciousness: An Introduction, as well as Prey, the Michael Crichton novel. While the first book may seem like a natural progression, I am aware that the second may not; however, Prey is the story of a Steve Grand-style artificial intelligence. It is actually Consciousness that is out of place here.

I also recently read A Widow for One Year, which like Owen Meany, I took more pleasure in reading than in finishing. Irving's narrative momentum works wonders on my mind and his characters are always very true. I think that The Hotel New Hampshire is next.

I am also finishing up Desert Solitaire, which is something like Walden for the Southwest U.S., though composed of the more colorful (and questionable) morality of the Cowboy, which is appropriate to the setting, in a sense.

Ordering Malcolm Gladwell's other books - notably, What the Dog Saw and The Tipping Point was also an easy choice after reading Outliers. He is an author that I am kicking myself for not reading sooner.

If the summer is boring it will be my own fault.