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Books, books, books (hummed tunelessly)
May. 18th, 2007 03:19 pmI get to go pick up my new book by Jennifer Michael Hecht today: The Happiness Myth. I special ordered it at Garrison Keillor's bookstore because the staff were just too friendly for me to explain that I get spousal-discount from J.'s place of employment.
I already own "Doubt: a history" by her and it is one of the most pleasing things ever. I have re-read it multiple times - it is like a reference for the snarky, thinking, not generally devout but morally serious minded person. Full of cool stuff about people I'd heard of (like Spinoza and Giordano Bruno) and had never heard of (like al-Razr, [edited to note: I remembered his name wrong! It should be "al-Razi", not "al-Razr"... my bad...] a cool Islamic philosopher and sorta-atheistic guy who was nonetheless well-loved in his own time/place).
I may have to get her book on the soul, too, but I suspect it will be less romp-ish due to coming from a university press. I have her first poetry book and badly need her second. Also she reads well in person and has cool purple-pink streaks in her hair. And is a cute poet history lady with a nice laugh. No further recommendations ought to be needed. This is a great antidote to the scrawny guy with the slightly lost look around the eyes who keeps earnestly trying to convert me at my place of employment. My personal thought on that is that you rarely see this sort of person trying to convert unattractive members of their non-preferred sex, so I wonder if it isn't secretly a form of intellectual flirting. I try to be respectful, but this subversive thought (and his persistence) makes this difficult. So then I come home and re-read "Doubt" and feel better.
I already own "Doubt: a history" by her and it is one of the most pleasing things ever. I have re-read it multiple times - it is like a reference for the snarky, thinking, not generally devout but morally serious minded person. Full of cool stuff about people I'd heard of (like Spinoza and Giordano Bruno) and had never heard of (like al-Razr, [edited to note: I remembered his name wrong! It should be "al-Razi", not "al-Razr"... my bad...] a cool Islamic philosopher and sorta-atheistic guy who was nonetheless well-loved in his own time/place).
I may have to get her book on the soul, too, but I suspect it will be less romp-ish due to coming from a university press. I have her first poetry book and badly need her second. Also she reads well in person and has cool purple-pink streaks in her hair. And is a cute poet history lady with a nice laugh. No further recommendations ought to be needed. This is a great antidote to the scrawny guy with the slightly lost look around the eyes who keeps earnestly trying to convert me at my place of employment. My personal thought on that is that you rarely see this sort of person trying to convert unattractive members of their non-preferred sex, so I wonder if it isn't secretly a form of intellectual flirting. I try to be respectful, but this subversive thought (and his persistence) makes this difficult. So then I come home and re-read "Doubt" and feel better.
