required reading, kids!: Candace's exquisitely written weblog on her present life in an English university town. you can learn how to write wonderful prose just by reading Candace's writing, i guarantee you. so do it. spend this time doing so... it's most likely much more pleasurable (and enlightening) than your English classes, which you all universally pan. (definition #7)

i'm curious to know what you're reading. let me know either via e-mail, IM, or simply by responding to this weblog (if you've signed up as a member of my weblog, that is). i'll compile a list on my weblog, perhaps annotated. here's my current reading list:

• Interface Culture by Steven Johnson
  (the link above will lead you to a review at The Atlantic Magazine online. from the book's blurb:) Drawing on his own expertise as editor-in-chief and co-founder of Feed, Johnson not only demonstrates how interfaces--those buttons, graphics and words on the screen through which we control information--influence our daily lives. He also tracks their roots back to Victorian novels, early cinema and even medieval urban planning. The result is a cultural tableau in which today's interfaces take their rightful place in the lineage of artistic innovation.
  this would be a good book for Quad to read.

• The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
  (about the Battle of Gettysburg. Kass recommended/lent me this. link leads to an intro and plot summary. from the blurb:) In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation's history, two armies fought for two dreams. One dreamed of freedom, the other a way of life.
  this would be a good book for Greed to read.

• Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins
  (subtitle: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder. from the SF Chronicle:) This is a love letter to science, an attempt to counter the perception that science is cold and devoid of aesthetic sensibility. Dawkins' writing is precisely the sort that captures the drama of science. Rich with metaphor, passionate arguments, wry humor, colorful examples, and unexpected connections, Dawkins' prose can be mesmerizing.
  this would be a good book for Fletcher to read.

• The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
  (been waiting for this for years! link above takes you to a page about the trilogy. from the book's dust jacket:) Lyra and Will are in unspeakable danger. With help from Iorek Byrnison the armored bear and two tiny Gallivespian spies, they must journey to a dank and gray-lit world where no living soul ever has gone. As war rages and Dust drains from the sky, the fate of the living--and the dead--finally comes to depend on two children and the simple truth of one simple story.
  this would be a good book for Tomas to read.

• The Control Revolution by Andrew L. Shapiro
  (that link takes you to the publisher's site about the book, with excerpts. from the book's blurb:) Hailed by reviewers and readers alike as one of the most illuminating, beautifully written, and tightly argued books ever published about the Internet. Shapiro argues that there is a common thread underlying developments [on the Internet]. It is not just a change in how we compute or communicate, but a potentially radical radical shift in who is control--of information, experience, and resources.
  this would be a good book for Anna to read.

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
  (click on the title for a Salon review. from the book jacket:) It is New York City in 1939. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat to date: smuggling himself out of Nazi-occupied Prague. He is looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for a collaborator to create the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book. Out of their fantasies, fears, and dreams, Joe and Sammy weave the legend of that unforgettable champion the Escapist. And inspired by the beautiful and elusive Rosa Saks, a woman who will be linked to both men by powerful ties of desire, love, and shame, they create the otherworldly mistress of the night, Luna Moth. As the shadow of Hitler falls across Europe and the world, the Golden Age of comic books has begun.
  this would be a good book for Ozzie to read.

{ net.casting }
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