everything that's on my mind

I figure it’s about time I post something this year, since my last was in December. Posting hasn’t exactly been a priority this year, as I’ve been spending more of my spare time than I should, no doubt, playing on the Wii we got the kids for Christmas, particularly Wii Sports Resort Golf (my best is now at 12 under). I hope to change that and post more often, but we’ll see.

Besides playing with the Wii, I have also been making a point to carve out a little more time for reading than I have the last couple of years, where my efforts were rather pitiful. I’m glad to report that I have had some success in 2010 and thus I’ve already managed to finish five books this year, and nearing my sixth. (You can see the short list here.) This is pretty good for me, as I tend to read far slower than I would like. I’m shooting for a minimum of two books per month, so I’m already a little bit ahead of the game.

I said in November that Kevin Roose’s The Unlikely Disciple was the best book I’d read in years. In the first two months of the year, I’ve managed to follow it up with two more books that enjoyed as much or more.

First was Dave Cullen’s Columbine (h/t Freeman), a very detailed and well-researched account of the events surrounding the tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in April 1999. Cullen takes you through the past of those involved, especially Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, on through the events of that day and the aftermath of the years that followed. Harris’ and Klebold’s intentions were to top the body count of Oklahoma City through the use of homemade bombs, but the bombs failed to go off. The basics of the story are known – two kids arrive at school and take to shooting their classmates – but there is much more. And some of the well-known accounts about what happened that day are either inaccurate or fictitious. Cullen does an outstanding job of sorting through this complex story.

Second was Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America’s Soul by Edward Humes, which chronicles the battle between parents, science teachers and the school board in Dover, Pennsylvania in 2004-2005. You may recall news stories regarding this battle over the board’s introduction of creationism into the biology curriculum by way of “intelligent design”. Humes’ book is likewise very well researched and detailed, and I believe is pretty fair and balanced (unlike some news networks…) He introduces all of the personalities involved, gives you a seat at the board meetings to listen to the board’s ill-conceived plan, and guides you through the eventual trial (after a group of parents sued). He also provides a significant amount of detail regarding the evidence and arguments for Darwin’s theory on the origin of species, as well as the arguments the ID proponents make as well. Overall, just a terrific book, definitely worth the time.

So, there you go. Those are my early recommendations from what I’ve finished this year. I found it difficult to put either book down (just like Roose’s book last year) and found myself staying up later than I would have liked on many nights because I just didn’t want to stop. I highly recommend both books.

March is upon us, and so I’m looking forward to two basketball-related books I plan to knock out in between watching the madness: When The Game Was Ours by Larry Bird and Earvin “Magic” Johnson, and Forty Minutes of Hell: The Extraordinary Life of Nolan Richardson by Rus Bradburd. Perhaps I will write about those at the end of the month as I expect to enjoy both immensely.

I hope soon to follow up with a post (or posts) about what I’ve been listening to during these early months of 2010 as well. I’ve already grabbed some great stuff to get the year off to a fantastic start, so I hope to get that done by next week.