Books

I am reading "The White Lioness" by Henning Mankell, a Swedish murder mystery. It's quite good. It started out a little stilted, but I soon got used to the style. I think that might just be the way Swedes use their language. One paragraph got my attention. The adult daughter is telling her Detective father that all he and mom used to talk about was their house and garden, they never talked about anything outside of their own little world. I was shocked. I cannot imagine such a thing. House and garden are the most boring things on earth. Their biggest impact on my mind is when something breaks, and with a couple of zillion mechanical devices in the house, something is always needing to be fixed.

I started reading "Censoring Science" by Mark Bowen, but it was awful. After I put it down and started reading the Swedish murder mystery, I realized they were written in a sort of similar style. Lots of minutae, detailed descriptions of daily affairs, the kind of the thing I enjoy in fiction, but this is supposed to be fact, and I expect something different from a factual account. Or maybe it was just poorly written. Facts were not presented in a convincing manner, but the story did not even engage me enough to warrant checking up on them. I gave up on it after a dozen pages or so.

I also finished reading "The Ecolitan Enigma" by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. Not one of his best books, but it is over ten years old. I think he has improved as a writer since then. A science fiction novel in name, it could easily have been set in present day Earth. The hero is a "James Bond" kind of special agent. For dubious reasons he is sent to do an economic study on a backwater planet. Turns out somebody is plotting interstellar war and chaos on this planet is supposed to provoke a war between two major players, which will leave an opening for the instigator to step in and reap the spoils. The story toddles along until we get to page 277, and then we get this little bit of wisdom:

A couple pages later there is another bit:

"And you will pardon my emphasis on titles, but it is so amusing to see the Avalonian reaction. Accomplishments, and you both boast considerable accomplishments, mean little in Camelot. Only the titles matter, and that, my friends, is why New Avaolon's days are numbered. I should not be so philosophical, but I am so glad you two could spare a moment for a luncheon with brokendown old diplomat."

That sounds a whole lot like President Bush's administration. On the next page we have this:

A note about the quotes. The first and last are pictures I clipped from Google Books. The middle one I had to type, page 279 was not included in the Google "Preview". Sorry the type size in the pictures is so small. I was unable to find a way to insert the full size image.

Update July 2016 replaced missing images (pictures of text).