Blink

This post really should be about Gibson’s Pattern Recognition, but I haven’t gotten that far yet.

I got distracted, which is a pretty common occurrence in my world, especially when I walk into a bookstore. I’ve noticed that as I get older (although age may have absolutely nothing to do with it) I become more schizophrenic about my reading (and writing for that matter). Sometimes I will read a book straight through, only stopping to eat, sleep and go to work. Other times I can’t seem to stay focused on any book for more than a few chapters.

Pattern Recognition I read pretty much straight through, in part because I spent large blocks of time trapped in an airplane in the space of about five days, but I haven’t really focused on anything since I finished it. But I digress from my distraction, another common occurrence in my world.

Yesterday I wandered into a bookstore café to eat my sushi lunch, do some reading and/or writing, and perhaps look for a book by Lawrence Lessig (www.lessig.org), who should be the subject of his own entry in the near future. I never got around to locating Lessig’s book because I blinked.

I have run across any number of references to Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of the wildly successful The Tipping Point, which has also come to my attention on more than one occasion though I have yet to read or acquire a copy. Apparently Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is a best seller, which means that the hardcover is handily discounted to the point of costing about as much as a trade paperback.

So I picked up a copy and started reading the introduction. I found myself reading about how sometimes I just "know" things. I look at a situation, and before I know it, my brain has done a complete analysis and assessment, but while it all just makes sense to me, I am hard pressed to explain it to anyone else. I’ve always thought the ability was more than a little weird, but according to Gladwell, it’s quite common and natural, but people don’t always consciously recognize it.

Interesting. Further bulletins as events warrant.

Not your ordinary bookstore

I tried to publish this post on Friday, but ran into some technical difficulties (most likely operator error). I have now recovered from the loss and composed a new entry, probably not as witty and urbane as the original, but it will have to do.

***********

I have just returned from the most wonderful bookstore. In fact, it is one of the reasons I came to San Francisco in the first place. It’s well worth the trip, even if you have to travel all the way across the country, as I did. Besides, you get to meet Ripley the fearsome watch beast perched atop the computer monitor. Gargoyle or cat? You decide.

I found Borderlands Books about a year and a half ago during a quest for a Christmas present (for myself and for a friend). Having read Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan, I wasn’t willing to wait another six months or so for the US edition to be published when the UK edition was already available. Some web searching provided me with two excellent stateside resources.

The first was Uncle Hugo’s in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Uncle Edgar’s is right next door, so whether you fancy mysteries or science fiction and fantasy, they’ve got you covered. I haven’t actually visited the physical location, but a friend of mine has, and she recommends the experience. If Minneapolis isn’t in your neighborhood, check them out on the web at www.unclehugo.com.

The second was Borderlands Books. I took advantage of the toll free number listed on the web site and spoke with a delightful bookseller who shared my penchant for Mr. Morgan and understood my impatience with the publishing industry.

I am happy to report that both volumes arrived in excellent condition in a timely manner.

When my mother offered my the opportunity to visit San Francisco while she attended a conference, I immediately agreed because it meant that I could actually set foot in Borderlands Books. The shop wasn’t quite what I expected, but it was exactly as I hoped it would be. For anyone reading this post with furrowed brow, I was thinking that the place would be physically bigger, but any deficiency in size is more than compensated for in selection, organization, comfort and knowledgeable staff.

Being a specialized independent bookstore means that Borderlands carries a lot of small press, special interest and special edition titles that large chains can’t or won’t be bothered to offer. Selling used as well as new books means that there is a good chance they will have an out of print title you have been desperate to find. On the web at www.borderlands-books.com.

Pattern Recognition

Just finished reading Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. Bloody brilliant. Brilliant as in intelligent. As in interesting. As in luminary.

I try to avoid superlatives because they are so often overused without a moment’s hesitation, but every once in a while overdoing it is appropriate.

As a good scifi nerd, I know that I should have started with the masterpiece Neuromancer, the book famous for bringing the word cyberspace into the vernacular. I tried to read Neuromancer years ago, but gave up about thirty pages in, completely lost. Having read and thoroughly enjoyed Pattern Recognition, I may have to go back and try again.

Once I ponder for a while and assemble my notes, I’ll be back with something a little more eloquent than "brilliant." I’ll say something about a reasonably believable female protagonist–with only a few glaring errors–written by a male author and about most of the loose ends being tied up nicely but with a few things left to wonder about, which is the way good novels *should* end. That sort of thing. Stay tuned.

Be forewarned, it is quite possible that my discussion of this book (or any book really) is likely to include too much information for those who have not read the book. I’ll try to be careful, but if something really strikes me, I am going to write about it. Otherwise, my own brilliant thoughts might be wasted rattling around in my skull. ;-)

Frame of reference

I have never read a book by John Grisham, Danielle Steel, Nora Roberts, Robert Ludlum, Janet Evanovich, Patricia Cornwell, Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, Sue Grafton.

I read a couple of the Oprah Book Club selections and found them to be horribly depressing.

I haven’t even read the Harry Potter books, although I plan to someday, once I think that I can get past all of the hype. (I have seen and enjoyed the films numerous times.)

I haven’t read The Lord of the Rings. Or Dracula. I don’t see what’s so amazing and wonderful and fantastic about the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

I consider Stuart Sutcliffe to be the actual fifth Beatle.

Springsteen is brilliant. He has the world’s greatest band backing him up, and he knows it.

Neil Gaiman is brilliant, and William Gibson probably is too.

I think that with all of the gadgets, James Bond must be compensating for something, though I couldn’t say exactly what. Maybe a rather two-dimensional personality.

Just because someone has something to say doesn’t necessarily mean that I want to hear it. I don’t often feel the need to be right at the expense of someone else being wrong. I am a big fan of the saying "to each his own" and I don’t feel the need to alter the gender of the pronoun.

I make a point of trying to be nice to security guards, janitorial staff, flight attendants, and retail and food service employees. I overtip in restaurants.

My favorite book of all time is The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee runs a close second. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White also holds a place very close to my heart.

Bedtime reading as a child included Kipling’s Just So Stories and the original Grimm’s Fairy Tales. My favorite was The Frog Prince, and my favorite part was when the princess becomes so irritated with the frog that she picks him up and hurls him against the wall. I am by no means a fan of cruelty to animals. I think it was more about him being irritating and her taking decisive action in an unpleasant situation.

I was classically–and possibly excessively–educated, which means that I read parts of the Iliad and the Odyssey in Greek and that there are several hundred lines of Shakespeare permanently lodged in my memory, but there are holes in that education. The Shakespeare plays I have read are mostly comedies and tragedies, as opposed to histories. I have read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man but not Ulysses or Dubliners. I have read The Sun Also Rises but not A Farewell to Arms. I have read Crime and Punishment but not War and Peace. (I know. Two different authors, but both icons of Russian literature.) I have read The Hunchback of Notre Dame but have been on page three hundred of Les Miserables for the last fifteen years. I have read The Picture of Dorian Gray but not The Importance of Being Earnest.

I fancy myself a student of history, but I tend to be selective. The American Revolutionary War, the French Revolution, and the War Between the States are my favorites. I have no patience for Manifest Destiny or the Crusades. I don’t suffer dictators gladly. I’ve heard quite enough about the Holocaust, thank you. I prefer my Greeks and Romans to be mythical. Ancient history is all just one big guess. I appreciate the irony of the British Empire stretching to India and into Africa, and yet the English being unable to rule the whole of their own island, or the smaller one off the northwestern shore. Eastern Europe, the countries of Africa, Russia and the rest of Asia are mysteries I plan to explore someday. The ancient feuds of European and Middle Eastern tribes fascinate me. So much hatred amidst so much tradition. The wars of the twentieth century were too disastrous, monstrous and brutal to have possibly been worth the price they exacted. I live in a narcissistic country that deeply regrets not being old enough to be a colonial or imperialistic power and is now trying to catch up with its elders.

Whatever problems I may be facing, at the end of the day I try to remember that there are so many people who are less fortunate than I and be grateful and appreciative of what I have. Perspective. Perspective is good.

I blog, therefore I am.

I exist!! I can babble at will and subject the world to my thoughts. (sinister grin)