One down, fifty-one to go.

Black Bodies and Quantum Cats: Tales from the Annals of Physics
by Jennifer Ouellette

So here is it, book number one finished in 2007. To be fair, most of this was read throughout 2006, sitting neglected for long periods of time in the bottom of my messenger bag, but I finally made the race to the finish (i.e. covering 3/4 of the book) in the last few days.

I had picked this up after hearing the author interviewed on NPR in hopes of getting a relatively painless refresher course in basic physics. It didn't quite accomplish that, but it did stimulate gears in the cobwebbed recesses of my skull that hadn’t turned more than two or three millimeters since I closed my last science textbook more than a few years ago.

Jennifer Ouellette tries to humanize the discoveries with fun and quirky little profiles of the men and woman involved, and many times their personalities do help to put the science of they helped define into a more clear perspective.

I admit that once we started encountering more quarks and Schrödinger's Cat, the material became less fun and more work, but I'm still glad I was forced to revisit these subjects. In some ways this was a great way to kick off this year's book project since it was in a subject I usually have little interest in, so by consuming it I limbered up the ol' brain in ways it wasn't used to, which might just make reading for traditional fare (for me) even easier. Okay, I'm already into book number two (one of the great Photogal gifts from last Christmas) so hopefully I'll be filling you in on that one in a few days.

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Whilst we’re on the subject of writers ...

Recently I've been reading Waiter Rant, since it reminds me of the good ol' days of working in the service industry (and also proving that every restaurant is completely dysfunctional and it's a miracle waitstaff don't go postal every three days). Anyway, a few days ago the site's author was answered a friend's query in regards to how the author's book writing had progressed recently. The author answered;

"Harder than I expected," I say. "But thank God for computers. I can't imagine typing this all out on a typewriter."

I thought about this for a second. Now I'm actually old enough to remember having to type my first term papers on a typewriter, using carbon, and adhering to strict MLA guidelines that necessitated the typing and retyping of page after page after page after only a few typos. It was maddening. At the same time, in retrospect, I can't help but think that for the most part that process might have been better as far as weeding out 99% of today's writers.

I was talking to Photogal on Monday about how it's so paradoxical that I personally am a little afraid of change, and can get sentimental about "how things were better back then." At the same time, though, I'm definitely an early adopter when it comes to technology, and the dissemination of information. So on one hand while I might miss the discipline that writing used to involve, and subsequently dissuaded mort people from tackling the construction of prose in the first place, but I also embrace and love the Pandora's cacophony that tumbles out of my computer day-in and day-out.

Anyway, I was talking to Photogal about this paradoxical situation and she agreed. I think her exact words were, "Yeah, you're weird."