Morning Fog

E-Reading

The market for e-readers, or "electronic books," continues to heat up.  Amazon Kindle this week unveiled its newest version, which offers wireless connectivity not just in the U.S., but internationally (click-to-buy in the right-hand margin of this page).  Borders has been offering the Sony equivalent (mundanely dubbed the "Reader") for quite a while, and now Barnes & Noble has one too, coming out in November under the name "Nook." 

(What is it about this week, I wonder, that we get these new e-readers, Windows 7, and swine flu vaccine all at once? Our cup runneth over.)

I remain happy with my Kindle 2, about 9 months old now, and am unlikely to upgrade or switch any time soon.  Kindle for me is a green choice; 90% of the books I read are not ones I want to keep or refer to later, so they just pile up (and up and up) until I get around to donating them.  I'm just happy to have stanched this constant buildup, especially if it saves a tree or two.  Any of the readers would accomplish this, so I haven't tried the latest models, but for those interested, here are a couple of reviews, one on the international Kindle, and one on B&K's Nook (both are from Wired.com/GadgetLab). 

If I were shopping around, I'd probably still gravitate toward the Kindle, though their piecemeal updating of features one by one is getting a little annoying.  The Sony Reader seems almost an also-ran.  Borders's promotion of it has been halfhearted.  The website doesn't feature it on a homepage splash; and even in a Borders store, I found I had to go looking for it; you could shop in Borders all day and not know the Sony Reader existed.  Also, it's not clear whether Borders offers any price advantage on books; they don't say so, and you can't check out the e-books tab on the website until you download their e-reader software.  Nook might be a great product, but it's not here yet, and the above-linked reviewer's main enthusiasm seems to be that Nook promises to make it possible to lend your e-book to others.  I'm really not sure there are throngs of people out there who regularly lend books to others, and if you're not one of them, who cares?

I still think there is a future market for these e-readers (as opposed to reading things on your tiny cellphone screen) but there will have to be an effort sooner, rather than later, to settle on one format for e-books.  Consumers won't put up forever with proprietary hardware/software that ties them to a monopoly for book purchases.

Prize Season - Literature And the Sciences

Amidst the furor that's likely to develop over the announcement that the Nobel Peace Prize goes to Obama this year, it's worth noticing also some of the other Nobels, as well as other internationally recognized awards.

Literature Prizes

If the Nobel Peace Prize is subjective (as it certainly is), then the Nobel Prize in Literature is übersubjective.  Though occasionally coming up with a winner who has an established readership beyond specialists in his/her own country, the Nobel has more often gone to a hitherto unnoticed writer.  This year's winner, Herta Mueller, is a case in point, described as "little-read" outside her native Germany. 

The Nobel has been criticized in the U.S. (and sometimes elsewhere in the world) as too Europe-centered, but the truth of that is self-evident.  Individuals like Nobel, or corporations like Booker (now, apparently, Man Booker), by virtue of providing prize money, get to decide, if they wish, the qualities they want to see in a winner.  Even if they don't, the committees and organizations that award these prizes will, over time, develop a certain bias toward certains kinds of works.  

The bias of the Nobels seems to have drifted toward the cleverly written novel of endless obscure literary references and vapid story lines (A.S. Byatt comes to mind), the kind of thing that in the U.S., engages the interest only of professors of English.  (I haven't read Ms. Mueller's work - does she qualify?)  Anyway, with that sort of focus, it's little wonder that the Committee's choices seem Europe-centered; that's where that sort of writing is concentrated.  Today's Washington Post has a very useful cheat sheet about these various literary prizes, with capsule descriptions of their typical focuses. 

Science Prizes

Leading up to the literature and peace prizes, there is usually a string of announcements of Nobel prizes in science.  I think it's a shame that these don't get more attention.  Perhaps they get more in other countries, but here in the U.S., the single, quick announcement is about the extent of the coverage.  No analyses, or long articles attempting to ascertain what the judges may have seen in the work of the awardees. 

That's natural to some extent; science is specialized, it doesn't have a large following (doesn't draw those valuable eyeballs and clicks!); and it's hard, in the since that most journalists are liberal-arts types who can't grasp or describe the concepts.  Still, they're worth our attention.  While there are many prestigious, internationally recognized awards in literature, in science, the Nobels are really the only game on the globe.

Full Moon Crazy 4: Full Orchestral Dress

The fourth of five vignettes about events unrelated except for their seeming lack of reason moves from the cataclysmic to the frivolous: 

Be it noted that the National Symphony Orchestra debuted its season by allowing the women musicians to wear all colors of garb.  Men were still limited to black tie or nothing (none, apparently, chose nothing).  I guess if we want to go non-traditional, this is a start, but it's always puzzled me why the traditional orchestra has uniform garb (black tie) for its gents, but lets the ladies appear in anything black that strikes their fancy, rather than standardizing.  It's motley looking.  The one or two orchestras that standardize their women's dress look far more professional.  If adding colors is needed to make classical music seem less stuffy, shouldn't the guys get an equal chance to amaze? 

American Rust - A Novel

Every so often I find a book I like well enough for a quick plug here, even if it is not connected to some subject matter I'm writing about.  American Rust, by Philipp Meyer, is one such.  Not too long ago I read a mention of it somewhere.  It's a first novel, so it's not without a few minor faults, but I was impressed by its exploration of issues of guilt, friendship, and family ties, set against the realistic background of a western Pennsylvania town decaying because its main economic engine, a large factory, has closed. 

Want to purchase?  Link to Amazon.com in the right margin.>>>>>>

Remarkable Trees

 

"I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree." 

(Joyce Kilmer - 1914)

Like Joyce Kilmer, most of us do like trees, whether it's for their beauty, their shade, their grandeur, or even for the utility and strength of their wood.  I've just finished an excellent book entitled Remarkable Trees of Virginia and with Earth Day coming up tomorrow, I decided to throw in a quick plug for it.  If you love marvelous trees - big trees, old trees, especially interesting trees, even historic trees - this is a book you should get, whether you live in Virginia or not.  

There are magnificent color photos on every page (the one posted here is my own, however).  In addition, a well-written accompanying text provides more information about each of the trees shown, their particular histories, and the growth habits, preferred microenvironment, and longevity of the species.

The book stems from a continuing project of the same name that was developed to find, list, and document the state's greatest trees - not just the largest, or the oldest, but also in a variety of other categories.  One surprise to the layman is how evidently often a "champion" tree can be displaced by another, either by dint of the "champ's" demise, or by being overtaken in growth, or perhaps supplanted by a "new" tree that had not been previously documented.  

All in all, an outstanding book.  The original edition was quickly sold out, but a second press run is due this month.  Click the icon in the right margin, where you can be notified when it's available.   

National Security Advisors - A Review And Assessment

Ivo Daalder and I.M. Destler have written an interesting and valuable study of the role of the National Security Advisor, assessing the office generally, as well as the operating methods and achievements of each of its incumbents individually.  It's well worth a read because it helps us understand the degree to which the holder of the title can literally make or break the foreign policy reputation of a President.  The influence is not (usually) because the Advisor gets directly involved in formulating policy, but because he/she is the one person in government who works directly for and only for the President's interest, ensuring that decisions are properly "staffed,"  and that all options and pitfalls are considered. 

Three points of the book seemed particularly noteworthy to me.  First that the Advisor must have the trust of the President and a working style that complements his.  That's self-evident, I suppose, but Daalder and Destler demonstrate in their case studies how often this simple principle has been ignored, usually with undesirable consequences.  A related point is that nearly every new Administration started out with an arrangement that needed fairly extensive adjustment, an adjustment often brought on by the ineffective handling of some crisis.  Sometimes the solution was an adjustment in working style, sometimes a new NS Advisor, sometimes a shift in the flow of information.

Second, and also not surprising, is that the NSA's relationship with the Secretary of State is fraught with pitfalls; bruised egos, dropped balls, resentments have been more the rule than the exception.

Finally, in terms of modern political history, I read with interest the book's assessment of Condi Rice's performance in the job.  The authors describe a Rice who took more than a few lumps from several more senior Cabinet officials, but who nevertheless had the President's strong confidence.  They fault her for failing to ensure that the President and his team considered all the options in important decisions (to go to war in Iraq, for example, without thinking through a postwar strategy).  At the same time, however, they quote Rice to the effect that she didn't try to cross all the t's because she knew the President's style (a quick decision and no afterthoughts); she believed he was uninterested in such "details."  I'm sure her assessment was correct, yet as the authors argue, it's the duty of the Security Advisor to try.

The position of National Security Advisor really only began with Kennedy, though Eisenhower had a staff chief with somewhat similar functions.  Thus it is new enough that it is still being defined.  It will be interesting to see how the Obama administration develops it, and what sort of NS Advisor Gen. Jones will turn out to be.  So far, it is unclear what role Jones may have played in last weekend's successful operation to free merchant Capt. Richard Phillips  from Somali pirates.

(Note: Buy the book by clicking the amazon.com widget in the right margin.)

Readers, Check Out Kindle

Yesterday I acquired a Kindle 2, the newish e-book reader from Amazon.com.  That might surprise some people who know me because I do read a lot, I like books qua books - the feel of a good hardback, a hefty reference volume - and I'm not one to adopt every new technology instantly if it doesn't do something useful for me.  I have no use for texting, for example. 

Briefly (in case you're still in the dark about it), with your Kindle you buy electronic books at discounts off "real" book prices, download them instantly, and store them (up to 1,500 of them, according to Amazon) on your reader, which has the footprint of an average book but is much thinner.  Some people, like the Washington Post's tech critic Rob Pegoraro, object that the technology is proprietary, meaning you can't lend the e-book, or give it away, or pass it to a friend.  Others just say that it doesn't replicate the feel, the tactile, visual, or olfactory pleasure of a "real" book.  Both are right; if these factors are critical to you, you may not need or want a Kindle.

But from my perspective, as someone who's not glued 24/7 to a computer or phone screen and doesn't wish to be, Kindle represents the future of book-reading, if reading books has a future.  I don't expect to use it for everything (not for reference works, or those with a lot of photos, or cookbooks, to name three).  No, for me, the Kindle is for everyday reading of the kinds of books I would normally read once and then get rid of - current novels, classics too maybe, popular history, books that I might buy and find I don't like.  Its overwhelming advantages are:

• It's green:   Of books I read, maybe one in 10 are keepers.  The rest pile up and overflow the shelves; their resale or charitable-contribution value is almost nil.  A huge proportion of used books in the world end up in landfills or (best scenario) shredded and recycled. The Kindle will eliminate that.  The book I want to keep, I can keep (or even buy a hard copy of) but the others aren't a problem - not for me, not for landfills, and not for the forests.

• It's convenient:  Slimmer than a single regular book, The Kindle goes many places a real book might not, even in a purse or jacket pocket.  You can sit where you want to read it, and you don't have to find an internet or cellphone connection (often a problem overseas). Moreover, by carrying this one object, you actually have a whole library of books at your fingertips, as well as periodicals and blogs you can get by subscription.  That's a benenefit any time, but especially when you're traveling!

• Overall, lower cost and greater availability of books:  Clearly there's a saving for consumers and publishers alike when a physical, manufactured book is replaced by an electronic version.  I also expect older books will be available more easily; once it's been produced in an electronic format, there's not much reason for a title to go out of print.

So far, nearly every person to whom I've described the Kindle has gone out and bought one.  Just in case I've convinced you to go buy one, there's a convenient link in the right-hand column.

What Oxford U. Hath Wrought

I've been very impressed with the overall quality and interest of the series bundled under the rubric "The Oxford History of the United States," comprising seven or eight volumes, each covering different period.  The series began back in the 1980's; one of them (Robert Middlekauff's The Glorious Cause) has already appeared in a revised edition, which offers an insightful explanation of why property rights have played such an overweening role in U.S. history. 

As one who for much of his life spent more time on the history of various foreign places, I found these volumes provide a really great reintroduction to American history.  They incorporate a lot of detail, the latest historical scholarship, and are generally rich not just in telling what governments or Presidents were up to, but in describing economic circumstances and aspects of people's everyday lives.

Case in point: the latest (?) in the series, What Hath God Wrought, by Daniel Walker Howe, covering the period 1815-1848.  Howe provides fascinating details about the development of transportation (mainly canals and railroads) and communications (the telegraph) as one of the key historical threads running throughout this period.  He offers rounded portraits of the key players of the time; Andrew Jackson of course, but not neglecting Martin van Buren, Henry Clay and others. He also clarifies the confusing history of political parties during the era - Federalists, Whigs, Democrats of various stripes - and the even more splintered progress of churches.  All in all, an excellent and enlightening read.