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Tony Miksak

WORDS ON BOOKS by Tony Miksak for KZYX&Z-FM, 90.7 Philo CA
Airs Sunday, December 30, 2007 at 10:55 am & Wednesday, Jan 2 at 1 pm

(copyright 2007 Tony Miksak)

Title: Nothing to Read

(MUSIC UP) This is Tony Miksak with a few Words on Books.

It's the end of the seventh year, post millennium. This somehow should be a big deal, and it feels like we're waiting for something, we don't know what, but whatever is coming may not be all that good.

And I've got nothing to read.

Well, in fact I have dozens of books to read, but I don't want to finish any of them. People in this state of mind wander into bookstores looking for something, they don't know what. Nothing satisfies.

On a different day, perhaps a Saturday in spring with fresh air flowing and new birds singing, any book would be irresistible.

Today it's dead of winter, end of year, and the mind will not be amused.

Why did I think "Gunpowder" would be interesting? Did I hope to get a bang out of "The History of the Explosive that Changed the World?" Why aren't I reading it? I should be reading it.

By the bedside I've nurtured a growing pile of unfinished books. On top is the book I mentioned last week, Richard Dawkins "The God Delusion," and on the bottom is Mark Twain, "The Eight Wilderness-Discovery Books," all 1,026 pages of them. The cover is tucked in at page 19. Apparently, I didn't get very far into the wilderness.

There he is, waiting for me, John Muir in the high Sierras, with his dog and his blanket and his old-fashioned boots.

"Practicing: A Musician's Return to Music" by Glenn Kurtz. I stopped reading this one on page 34: "Music seemed to offer me an irresistible exchange. If I worked, if I practiced and practiced, then ever-new worlds of sound, of feeling, would open, worlds that made visceral sense to me, though they seemed closed to others." Too much work. Next?

"Far Afield: A Sportswriting Odyssey" by S. L. Price sits in the pile with an old note on the cover reading "Tony?"

A friendly sales person handed it to me with the explanation, "I carried this around because I thought you might like to read it. You like sports, don't you?"

"Fair Play for Frogs" by Jerome R. Waldie and Nestle J. Frobish. I bought this book because I heard one of the authors interviewed by Barry Vogel on Radio Curious. I got as far as the Introduction on that one, too.

"Words Without Borders: The World Through the Eyes of Writers, An Anthology" sounded interesting at the time. "Sacred Hunger" by Barry Unsworth is here because the book group from which I have resigned planned to discuss it. "Stanley" by Tim Jeal, "The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer" safaried me as far as page 27: "While at Brynford, John had read Robert Browning's recently published poem 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came' and had been overwhelmed by it."

I fell asleep right there.

"Hack: How I Stopped Worrying About What To Do with My Life and Started Driving a Yellow Cab" by Melissa Plaut found its way bedside many months ago. I never opened it. One day, one day...

A friend of mine loaned me "Linked" by Albert-Laslo Barabasi, "How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life."

"Linked" is a sleeping pill. It has graphs and tables and mathematical formulae. Yes, it is interesting, especially all that stuff about degrees of separation. Hard science puts me to sleep. Am I a bad person?

(MUSIC UP) Indeed, I have nothing to read, even though I have lots to read, if you know what I mean. Suggestions would be welcome at this point. Let me know what you've enjoyed reading this year. Maybe I can share your suggestions with other readers. Maybe I'll try to read your book.

You never know.

(MUSIC) You, too, can receive WOB scripts in your email. To be on the list, please send a note to amiksak@mcn.org.

You can view past WOB scripts here: http://www.gallerybooks.com/bkm/index.html

NOTES:

"Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive That Changed the World" by Jack Kelly. Basic Books paperback $14.95. ISBN 0465037224.

"The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. Mariner Books paperback $15.95. ISBN 0618918248.

"The Eight Wilderness-Discovery Books" by Mark Twain. Mountaineers Press hardcover $38.00. ISBN 089886335X.

"Practicing: A Musician's Return to Music" by Glenn Kurtz. Knopf hardcover $23.00. ISBN 030726615X. (Paperback due August, 2008.)

"Far Afield: A Sportswriting Odyssey" by S. L. Price. Lyons Press hardcover $24.95. ISBN 1599211440.

Out of print but available on the Internet: "Fair Play for Frogs: The Waldie-Frobish Papers" by Jerome R. Waldie and Nestle J. Frobish. Harcourt hardcover $7.95 (original price in 1977). ISBN 0151299617.

"Words Without Borders: The World Through the Eyes of Writers: An Anthology" edited by Samantha Schnee et al., Anchor Books paperback $14.95. ISBN 1400079756.

"Sacred Hunger" by Barry Unsworth. Norton paperback $14.95. ISBN 0393311147.

"Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer" by Tim Jeal. Yale University Press hardcover $38.00. ISBN 0300126255.

"Hack: How I Stopped Worrying about What to Do with My Life and Started Driving a Yellow Cab" by Melissa Plaut. Villard Books hardcover $21.95. ISBN 1400066042. (Paperback due June, 2008.)

"Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life" by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi. Plume Books paperback $15.00. ISBN 0452284392.

(Your book suggestion here?)

Tony Miksak
Words on Books: http://www.gallerybooks.com/bkm/index.html
personal home page: http://amiksak.googlepages.com/home
no one hears you the first time
no one hears you the second time
and even fewer hear you either time.

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