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Tony Miksak

WORDS ON BOOKS by Tony Miksak for KZYX&Z-FM, 90.7 Philo CA
Airs Sunday, January 13, 2008 at 10:55 am & Wednesday, Jan 16 at 1 pm

(copyright 2008 Tony Miksak)

Title: Once Again The Readers Speak Once Again (cf., Office of Department of Redundancy Department) (of)

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

As part of the ongoing attempt to avoid creative writing, Words on Books again reads from letters you've sent in.

You all are easy to quote because you write so well. Most listeners/readers wrote in response to my complaint about nothing to read, despite having piles of books at hand.

(By the way, I'm SO now over it: I am reading and enjoying several books.)

From author John Biggins in England:

The symptoms that you describe are quite normal in a man of your age and should not give grounds for undue concern unless accompanied by other signs, like an inability to remember your wife's name or wearing carpet slippers to visit your local shopping centre. We medics call the condition "hyperlectio vulgaris" and normally prescribe a light behaviour-modifying regime which involves moving to a wooden shack in the mountains at least ten miles distant from the nearest metalled road and avoiding all further contact with written matter even if this means digging pitfall traps and laying landmines to keep the postman, Federal Marshals and other agents of print culture at a respectful distance...

...I believe that the number of titles published in the UK each year is around 16,000, of which about 2,400 are works of fiction. Of these, probably ten at most are worth the trouble of reading them.

Years ago a reviewer damned the late Lord Longford's "Life of Jesus" with the words "It can truly be said of this book that once one has put it down, it is very hard to pick it up again."

I have just been reading Sir Thomas Browne's "Religio Medici", written about 1640, and even then he complains of the excessive number of books...

He goes on to explain that there may now be as many as 1,400 books known to western scholarship, and that this is far too many. Indeed the likelihood is that his contemporary Robert Burton, who wrote "The Antomie of Melancholie," had read every single one of them - and ended up hanging himself as a result.

My own approach to this is that with very rare exceptions I never read anything less than twenty years old, on the grounds that time is a pretty good sieve and that if a book is still around two decades later then it must have something to be said for it prima facie.

On the original theme, are you familiar with Nancy Mitford's "The Pursuit of Love"? If so then you will remember her Uncle Matthew's view of literature: "I read a book once: a thing called 'White Fang' by a chap called Jack London. And that was so damned good I've never read one since."

Then this note from Paul Takushi at the UC Davis bookstore:

Tony, Tony, Tony! Such malaise! I sympathize with you. It's like dining at one of those football-field-sized all-you-can-eat buffets at a Tahoe casino... for the seventh day in a row (I already tried the roast mutton Almondine - twice!).

(MUSIC UP) Anything that you think you should be reading, or eating, or paying attention to, is probably not all that compelling, or you would have done it already... After many moons in the book biz, we've seen it all and then some.

Go easy on yourself.

Go surfing.

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

NOTES:

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

John Biggins is the much admired author of a series of historical adventure novels set during World War One starring an Austro-Hungarian naval officer. His delightful books are back in print, and he reports he may be working on a new one.

"Tomorrow the World: In Which Cadet Otto Prohaska Carries the Habsburg Empire's Civilizing Mission to the Entirely Unreceptive Peoples of Africa & Oceana" by John Biggins. McBooks Press paperback $16.95. ISBN 159013110X.

"The Two-Headed Eagle: In Which Otto Prohaska Takes a Break as the Habsburg Empire's Leading U-Boat Ace and Does Something Even More Thanklessly Dangerous" by John Biggins. McBooks Press paperback $16.95. ISBN 159013110X.

"The Emperor's Coloured Coat: In Which Otto Prohaska, Future Hero of the Habsburg Empire, Has an Unexpectedly Interesting Time While Not Quite Managing to Avert the First World War" by John Biggins. McBooks Press paperback $16.95. ISBN 1590131088.

"A Sailor of Austria: In Which, Without Really Intending to, Otto Prohaska Becomes Official War Hero No. 27 of the Habsburg Empire" by John Biggins. McBooks Press paperback $16.95. ISBN 159013107X.

Reading suggestions from Paul Takushi:

When you're ready to start reading again, enter slowly. Start with short stuff. Read some YA - like "Slam" by Nick Hornby. Or how about some mindless, commercial, unstoppable page-turner ala Harlan Coben?

"Slam" by Nick Hornby. Putnam Publishing Group hardcover $19.99. ISBN 0399250484.

From the publisher: "The bestselling author of 'High Fidelity' and 'About a Boy' delivers his first novel for young adults, a wonderfully witty, poignant story about a teenage boy who is unexpectedly thrust into fatherhood. When he's inexplicably whizzed into the future, it's up to Sam to make the right decisions.

"Do You Think What You Think You Think" by Julian Baggini. Plume books paperback $13.00 ISBN 0452288657.

You gotta love a book that starts with "There's no doubting that Descartes was a pretty clever guy. But whether it was his fault of that of his acolytes, a lot of hopeless misconceptions about human nature can be traced back to him."

"Deer Hunting with Jesus, Dispatches from America's Class War" by Joe Bageant. Crown Business hardcover $25.00. ISBN 030733936X.

This is one of those books that you can read a chapter, then put it down for a few days, then read another chapter, etc. I bet, however, that you'll want to keep reading it once you start. Bageant is a funny guy writing about stuff that's sorta unfunny: The dark underbelly of the rural poor. Each chapter starts small, grows into full-blown social commentary, and then
ends small again.

"Finding the Still Point: A Beginner's Guide to Zen Meditation with CD (Audio) by John Daido Loori. Shambala Publications hardcover $14.00. ISBN 1590304799.

Most books about meditation are like books about getting back to practicing music: a mixture of new age, feel good, psychobabble... and boring. At least this book does the genre the right way - it's super short. I like reading a few pages here and there on my work breaks because it's a relaxing read about relaxing. This would be a good read while sitting on a bluff overlooking the North Coast (how's that for enticement!).

Cindy Swan in Willits, CA, writes:

For a new year's treat that can't be beat try (at least) the first three pages of "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing." It will balm your soul... and, of course, David Korten's excellent tome "The Great Turning" (is) perfect for an introspective dinner party's conversation, over many glasses of good wine with old friends...

"Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: The New Liberal Menace in America" by Stephen Marshall. Disinformation Company paperback $16.95. ISBN 1932857427.

From the publisher: "Faced with the collapse of the American dream at home and the decline of their global empire abroad, American liberals have dumped the 1960s-era radicalism of their youth and become complicit in a complex game of bait-and-switch, selling the world a vision of liberal democracy that is, in reality, a failed system on the verge of social and economic collapse."

"The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community" by David Korten. Berrett-Koehler Publishers paperback $19.95. ISBN 1887208089.

From the publisher: "David Korten's classic bestseller 'When Corporations Rule the World' was one of the first books to articulate the destructive and oppressive nature of the global corporate economy. In 'The Great Turning' he argues that corporate consolidation of power is merely one manifestation of... the organization of society through hierarchy and violence that has largely held sway for the past 5,000 years."

=================

Finally, for those of you who have heard about it and may be worried: On the night of Tuesday, January 8, a fire broke out above Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino. It was started by a hearth fire that got out of control. Marcus Strutz, a chiropractor working and living above the store, was badly burned on hands and face, but will recover completely. The bookstore's stock is a total loss due to smoke, water, and humidity. However, the store has not and will not close, not even for one day. Many people have offered to assist and a great number of people currently are working on clean up and repair. The plan at present is to empty the store of books and merchandise, clean, re-paint and re-rug, and re-grand-open sometime between 30 and 60 days from now.

There are photos of the fire here: www.nwilsonphoto.com/special/fire/index.htm

Letters of condolence, gratitude and encouragement may be sent to owner Christie Olson Day at PO Box 270 Mendocino CA 95460 and christie@gallerybooks.com.

Tony Miksak
Words on Books: www.gallerybooks.com/bkm/
personal home page: http://amiksak.googlepages.com/home

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