Retreat to Reading

Less than 10 hours to go, to be retreat back inside the borders of Dogland, my respite from your holiday excesses and unremitting ho-ho-ho.  (How much Christmas music does anyone need to hear in a lifetime?)

I have the basic supplies--several bottles of wine, including a (sadly, Californian, not Oregonian) Pinot Noir, lots of coffee, 2 1/2 cartons of Central Dairy peppermint stick ice cream, an extra 60 pounds of dog food, plenty of vegetables, yogurt, maybe no meat, but plenty of peanut butter, peas, rice and beans.  All set.

And, it seems like I'm currently reading 5 books, not all at the same speed:

Le Courbusier, A Life.  Not an architect I much life, but I need to know more about his work to understand all those in the 50s and 60s who tried to undo him, like Constant Nieuwenhuys, and his vaguely exciting and distinctly horrifying New Babylon.  (Did just read Mark Wigley's Constant's New Babylon: The Hyper-Architecture of Desire--lots of interesting photos.)

And not fast, reading Why Geology Matters, which is fine, but not as intriguing as Planet in a Pebble, which I read a few months ago..

Finding Them Gone: Visiting China's Poets of the Past, about a somewhat odd and cranky translator making 30 days worth of pilgrimages through China, to visit and drink with dead poets.  Cool.  (And we're going to China next June.  Plenty of spots available.  Go sign up.) 

 

With Soren, I'm reading Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, an intriguing look at how we might know the world through ways other than western science, and might hold a different sort of conversation.  One outcome already--I need to see about planting a bit of Ozark Witch Hazel in the fields.

And finally, Ready Player One, a dystopic, online sf novel that drips with pop culture.  Reading this because, oh, I need that outlet, and the movie version comes out next year sometime.

later, bob