Not quite high intellectual material, but it made me laugh and think fondly of Science, Society and the Human Person: http://xkcd.com/957/


KS

This page hasn't seen much love in a while; just wanted to share that I'm reading Herzog by Saul Bellow.  It's my first encounter with Bellow, and I find him enchanting.  I'm feeling that unique love-at-first-read that I've felt with only a few other authors; Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, and Evelyn Waugh come to mind.  Let's see if he lives up to his promise.

My inspiration to read Bellow rose from Chicago's wonderful One Book, One Chicago program, now in its 10th year.  They pick a (usually) quite good book every spring and fall for the city to (theoretically) read together.  There are a plethora of live readings, celebrity readings and promotions, lectures, themed artworks and theater, etc., surrounding the novel of choice.  This year is particularly hyped because it is the 10-year anniversary of the program.  I'm excited to read the One Book eventually (Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March) but of course there were no available copies to be had at the library.  While I wait, I decided to explore another Bellow work that I'd actually been wanting to read for some time ... cue Herzog.

I shall include a few quotes to entice you from the first 48 pages:

"Looking for happiness - ought to be prepared for bad results."

"You have to fight for your life.  That's the chief condition on which you hold it."

"Hitch your agony to a star."

"O Lord! he concluded, forgive all these trespasses.  Lead me not into Penn Station."

I hope to hear about other people's literary adventures.