Reading now

Of course, I'm still getting around to finishing Purple Cow (a slim book). I wonder what I should do to celebrate when I finally get it finished!

I've started reading Hardball by Sara Paretsky. She's been writing a long time, and I read her first novel and several others in the V.I. Warshawsky series. I've enjoyed this series in the past because I found Warshawsk'si passion and strength attractive.

I've just started yesterday Just My Type: A Book About Fonts. This is the book I didn't know desperately needed to be written. I love it.

For instance, I had no idea that Hermann Zapf designed Palatino - man, he's my hero! I love Palatino!

Author Simon Garfield thoughtfully illustrates this book with examples of how type has been used, and I know that this will help me think about how I want to choose font. I never thought, for instance, that the use of Bodoni conveys class but I'm sure that that knowledge might come in handy someday.

I find this book easy to read, and engaging, which is my standard for having been written well. But there's something about Garfield's words I find somewhat surprising and I haven't put my finger on it yet. Perhaps it's only that he resists the temptation to give you a lot of history at the same time that he's giving you a little history.

And, I'm reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, which I find quite interesting. I'm on the second chapter, which I really enjoyed. She's clearly done a lot of research, which she frequently summarizes. She also quotes folks quite frequently, including your friend and mine, Dr. Johnson. Apparently the good doctor had quite a bit to say about happiness.

Part of the charm of the second chapter is that she neatly solves a persistent domestic problem: nagging and resentment. Actually, the solution isn't that neat because it requires thought and self-discipline. Speaking only for myself, let me say that self-discipline is hard. (Those of you who find self-discipline easy can spend this lesson working on your tact.) However, she demonstrates that it can be done. She undertakes a project called the Week of Extreme Nice, in which she bends over backwards not to criticize, not to nag, and to go out of her way to be cheerful, pleasant, and thoughtful to her spouse. And, by the end of the week, she finds that her spouse has noticed and responded. Vicariously, I find that immensely satisfying.

Oh, and I started to read 'Tis. And I've also begun Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It's her account of a year that her family spent farming and eating things that they either grew themselves or got from someone nearby, eliminating the petroleum consumption that's a part of the cost of the things that you buy in the grocery store.