Books Again, and a Documentary

Well, now that I’ve gotten TV out of my system, I can go back to making random observations and cluttering up my blog with trivia. It’s probably time for a book check. Here’s what I’m currently reading:

Dombey and Son – Charles Dickens
The Way I See It – Temple Grandin
Inventing America – Garry Wills
Asperger’s Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals – Tony Attwood
The Dad in the Mirror – Patrick Morley & David Delk

You may notice that the last three were listed previously; I’m pretty much stalled on them. The top book I had started and put down several months back, and I’m finding it easier to read this time around. (I set a personal goal early in life that I would read every Dickens novel before I died. After I finish this one, I’ve got three to go.) The next book on the list was mailed to me by a good friend in California, and I’m finding it easier reading than the Attwood book. (Both cover roughly similar territory.) In between this entry and the last, I completed the following:

The Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
The Full Cupboard of Life - Alexander McCall Smith

Steinbeck was wonderful. The Grapes of Wrath used rough language and had a powerful, heavy message to relate. (A little too heavy - he stranded his main characters in an unsurvivable situation by the end of the novel without resolving it.) Cannery Row's language was smoother (while still coming across as rough), more polished, more compact, and much funnier. Reading the two together gave real insight into how Steinbeck's talent improved over time. I could write much more about Cannery Row, but I'll leave that for another entry. I also need to say more about Smith's Botswana novels. Another day.

I spent every evening of the past week enjoying the Ken Burns documentary America’s National Parks: Our Best Idea on PBS. Parts were slow, and he over-used much of the best movie footage taken at the parks, but it was overall a thorough and fascinating presentation of the U.S. park system, how it came about, and what it means for us as citizens of the U.S. Burns can do no wrong.