TALKING ABOUT BOOKS #2

**One of the follies of trying to do current lists is that the lists are always changing: I finish a book, or my interests change before I obtain the book (or get around to reading it), or newer or more urgent titles bump a book way down the list. One thing that rarely happens is that I do not finish a book I start. Once in a while a book is so disappointing or so poorly written, or offensive that I bag it midway, but that's unusual. I might stop reading a book that is not as advertised, or not what I am seeking in terms of useful content, but that's rare too.

**So when do I read? Many mornings each week begin with a few minutes of reading the newspaper and a few pages in a current book before spending some time in Bible study. On and off during the day, when I stop to rest, it's usually with a book in hand. In the evening, from the news to bedtime, most "dull" TV moments are redeemed by reading the book in hand. Finally, after all other lights are out and my home companion (who gets up every morning at 5:00 am) is dozing at last, I may read in one or two more books until 1:00 am.

**Books Currently Being Read:
1. Salt. – Mark Kurlansky. [Long on the best-seller lists, this is a well seasoned look at world history through the impact of salt in economies, food preservation, and politics.] ** Just finished this one Tuesday the 8th. Change lists again (-:
2. Oil Painter’s Solution Book: Landscapes. – Elizabeth Tolley. [After benefitting from books on color theory and technique, I finally found an instructional text that speaks to my perceptions of plein air art and what I always feel I am seeing in what I am trying to paint. Just what I need at this point in my learning curve. It's ideas were quite helpful in painting class this week.]
3. Color Choices. – Stephen Quiller. [ One of the tomes that is more for the watercolorist, but which includes the names commercial paint companies assign their colors and put on their paint tubes. Best of all, the book displays this data on a huge, and very useful color-wheel.]
4. Alaska; Tales of Adventure from the Last Frontier. – Edited by Spike Walker. [ More wonderful Alaskan literature. These selections are passages from the complete works which have held readers of Alaskan stories in thrall and astonishment over the years.]
5. Chicken Soup for the Surviving Soul; 101 Healing Stories About Those Who Have Survived Cancer. – Jack Canfield, et.al. [I have so many friends fighting cancer; this is for my own insight. It is helping me know how to talk, and what I can say to a person who has this wicked disease.]
6. Plein Air Painters of California; The Southland. – Ruth Lilly Westphal. (History of 1880 to 1940) an inter-library book on loan. [ The leading painters of the era are presented with selected works and an essay of their specific contribution to the plein air movement in California.]
7. Plein Air Painters of California; The North. – Ruth Lilly Westphal. (History of 1880 to 1940) also an inter-library book. [This second volume continues and expands upon the first with additional artists from Santa Barbara to San Francisco and more essays explaining the development of color and techniques they employed.]
8. In Search of the Old Ones; Exploring the Anasazi World of the Southwest. – David Roberts. [Modern awareness of the American Indian dwellings of the Southwest is still less than 150 years old, and understanding these cultures and their histories is still a developing revelation. For example, the Mesa Verde of my childhood visits in the early 1950’s is a vastly different experience and set of understandings than an encounter today.]
9. Wings of Madness; Alberto Santos-Dumont and the Invention of Flight. - Paul Hoffman. [ Son David shared this book with me. Balloon flight was common before the Wright Brothers and this pioneer, a truly unique and eccentric genius, had experience and insights that lent much to modern manned flight.]
10. National Geographic Magazine; May 2008. [OK, I know it’s not a book, but it is the only magazine left now of which I have read every published edition. Some years ago I finally had to drop Reader’s Digest because I just could not find the articles any more hidden among the advertisements. NGS, be warned!.]

**Again, I challenge you to share your own lists. Examine your current reading and post the titles of your books in progress, and tell me where to find them. (At least e-mail me your findings.) Watch for the remaining list, #3, my "Read Soon" list, which will be posted in three or four days.

**I can see already that I will be seeking out some of the same books you have been enjoying.

**Thanks.