On the Merits of Reading Anything and Everything
I will pretty much read anything. Actually, I try to be selective within genres–for example I read Bridget Jones' Diary, one of the most influential and earlier "chicklit" books, but I haven't read widely within the chicklit genre. But, more generally speaking, I will pick up pretty much anything. I devoured all the Star Trek novels in the Swasey library as a kid and even continued to read them through high school and even into college. I've read pot-boilers like Clive Cussler and Dan Brown. I've read a bunch of old classics–Dickens, Verne, Hugo (helpful hint: reading old French books Read more…
5,000 pages of knights, dragons, and one really big wall
Sometime in early December I started the book Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. It's the first book in a seven part fantasy series (parts 6 and 7 haven't been released yet). I started getting interested after the hoopla surrounding the HBO adaptation of the books. And then hearing from a lot of people that the books were quite good. So I decided to check them out. They have occupied the better part of two months. Really, I don't think I've read much else of anything since then, but they total 5,000 pages, so it's not like I've been slacking. They Read more…
Walk like the Dickens
Last week, Charles Dickens celebrated his 200th birthday. I've actually read a fair bit of Dickens. Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations. Of those, Bleak House is probably the "best" of his books, and I have a certain fondness for it because I read it while in London. It also contains one of the first detectives in English fiction: the bizarrely named Inspector Bucket. I wouldn't necessarily recommend Bleak House, though. It is 1000 pages and quite dense. Out of those I've read, David Copperfield and Great Expectations are probably the most accessible. Read more…
Talking Parks at City Club
Two worlds are colliding! This Wednesday, City Club's lunch will be about the future of funding for local and state parks. I'll be moderating the panel, which will have people from the state, from Pierce County Parks, and from Earth Economics, a non-profit that specializes in innovation for parks and open space. I think it will be an interesting lunch program! (the picture of the Wright Park lion is from our 2005 park tour)
If you haven’t checked out pinterest.com yet, I think you should. It’s an online pinboard, and after playing around with it for awhile, you might identify with this guy. 🙂 Source: Uploaded by user via Erik on Pinterest I’ve enjoyed creating boards around my main interests: books, movies, parks, travel, etc. It’s pretty fun! Here are my boards if you want to check them out.
A long weekend in Sun Valley
Sorry about not updating this blog for almost a week. The week was absolutely full: first, getting ready for a really great City Club dinner about Hide/Seek, the upcoming exhibition at TAM. It was a really great program, and I think Tacoma should be proud that TAM is bringing this exhibition. And then yesterday, Mary and I drove 12 hours in the car to get to Sun Valley to see my sister’s family. So we’re here for a few days of hanging out, outdoor adventure, and checking out pictures of Ernest Hemingway, such as this great one in the meeting Read more…
“The Saints Go Dying” is free through Monday night!
I'm once again trying out marketing by giving away a book. Here's The Saints Go Dying on Kindle. It's free for the next 18 hours or so (it goes back to being $2.99 at midnight Monday night). So far, January has been a better month than December, and December a better month than November, and November better than October … But a lot of those sales were driven by The Little Book of Gold, which basically spent all of January in the Top 100 Kindle Books for Nonprofits list. Sales of the mysteries dropped a bit, though, so I wanted Read more…
Clean-up at Northwest Trek
When I called the Park District on Monday to find out about tree damage, I called the Natural Resources Manager. I did not call out to Trek, but it turns out I should have, because that we had some significant damage out there, including damage to exhibit as well as many other animal areas, viewing pavilions, fencing and pathways that were severely damaged. The director reported to the board that in 30 years, he'd never seen so much damage out there. We expect that Trek will be closed through February 17. Above is the beaver, who was cleaning up her own Read more…
The only copy in existence
I will soon have more physical books of The Marinara Murders, and hopefully of The Saints Go Dying shortly after that. This was a proof that I autographed and labeled #001. It was a prize at last night’s Social Media Club. Who knows, if I write enough of these books, maybe it will be worth something some day? But for now, it’s the only physical copy in existence. That’s kind of awesome to think about. It cost me $15 to create, and more than half of that was expedited shipping, to get it in time for the Social Media Club. Read more…
Rick Steves and public spaces
This morning as part of a park conference, Rick Steves was the keynote speaker. It was a really interesting looking at public spaces and parks. Mary was excited to join me for it, and she took away this nice souvenir. We both enjoyed the book, so it was great to get it signed!
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