on the case

Timely: Domino Magazine's gallery on bookshelves.

My three favorites:

A friend tipped me off to the fan-freaking-tastic news that Helvetica: the film is on Google Video in its full-length typographic glory.

A thousand thanks - I know how I'm relaxing this weekend!

P.S. Is it hopelessly nerdy that I really want this mug?

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been observing one of the security guards slowly but surely (and at a faster pace than I had) making his way through that behemoth of a novel, Infinite Jest.

Somehow I find this profoundly heartwarming. Like I'm not alone --there are goofy, read-everything people out there in the world. Some of the security guards bring in little TVs or just the daily newspaper - no, this guy went all out, with a book was only slightly less difficult for me to get through than my old nemesis Gravity's Rainbow.

I'm bringing in my battered copy of A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again for him tomorrow.

FYI

In case you were wondering, it turns out that you do not need to bring your own needlenose pliers to your MRI appointment - shoulder imaging now does not require removal of that ancient navel ring that seemed like such a good idea close to a decade ago.

(So why keep it? The ring > the leftover scar.)

kopi luwak

One more foodie adventure crossed off the list...

I mentioned it before - kopi luwak, the world's most expensive coffee. And this Sunday, I had the opportunity (courtesy of Zeke's) to try it. An inner gauntlet was thrown - I couldn't resist.

The Baltimore Sun covered the event and their article is here. I spoke with the Sun reporter but declined to give details, as I somehow prefer to not have my name associated with cat poop coffee forevermore. But the "smooth" and "earthy" descriptions were mine.

december 2007 - finale of the year of books

A partial illustration of the books I read this year. (Not all are included.) Several books have been given away to friends. (Both my copies of A Suitable Boy, Suite Francaise, Stiff, Never Let Me Go, etc) Many others, especially from the first half of the year, were simply donated in lieu of my summertime move. I could carry only so many books.

December books:

*Intuition, A. Goodman
*The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, J-D. Bauby
*What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, R. Carver
*The Island of Lost Maps, M. Harvey
*Old School, T. Wolff
*Birds of America, L. Moore
*Offshore, P. Fitzgerald
*Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney's Humor Category, D. Eggers et al (ed.)
*Moon Tiger, P. Lively
*Special Topics in Calamity Physics, M. Pessl
*We Don't Live Here Anymore, A. Dubus
*The History of Love, N. Krauss

I read (approximately - possibly more) 97 books total for this project in 2007.
*58 I classified as fiction
*20 I classified as short story, essay or novella collections
*15 were biographical or autobiographical
*14 were science-related
*6 were set in Baltimore
*6 were Booker prize winners (Offshore, Hotel du Lac, Moon Tiger, Possession, Amsterdam, The Blind Assassin)

This year of reading project was due to my ability, thanks to living in Baltimore, of getting books for free. The only books that I paid for were my Penguin Great Ideas - Darwin book, my textbooks for classes, and the books from McSweeney's. A few others I was lucky enough to receive as gifts, but mostly this is the benefit of my (obviously) favorite nonprofit.

Here's to reading.