CV - Thank you for the suggestion of "Why buildings fall down." As it turns out, my university library has it so I checked out their copy and am going to start reading it tonight. (I also found a more-technical book on soil mechanics, called "Introductory Soil Mechanics and Foundations." At least the first chapter was fairly readable so I have high hopes for that too.
The library also has the companion volume to "Why Buildings Fall Down," which is called something like "Why Buildings Stay Up." I resisted the temptation to check it out - one of the problems I have in libraries is that I find eighteen books that grab my interest (when I'm looking for one) and I decide I must read them all RIGHT NOW and I check them out and then never get any of them read.
Also, apparently my university library has stopped doing the long faculty-checkouts; these books are due back in 10 days. Not fair at all. That's even less than many public libraries. (And I'm not sure that there's a tremendously large demand for a book on soil mechanics...) So I'm better off checking out one or two at a time and actually reading them. What I really should do is get a tiny notebook and carry it in my purse and write down the titles and call numbers of books that grab my interest so I can go back for them at a later time.
And puck - I used to read Utne Reader every month (bi-month? I think it was bi-monthly) and then the bookstore (such as it was) that I frequented stopped carrying it (I think so they could fit more sections of used computer games in) and I never really looked at it again. Sometimes some of the articles kind of pissed me off (pardon my French) because some of them were written by people who lived in Major Metropolitan Areas who didn't quite grasp the experience of us more rural-dwellers who can't merrily give up our cars in the name of stopping global warming, because there is NO bus service, the streets are neither pedestrian nor bicycle friendly, and the nearest grocery is 10 miles away.
Or some of the articles I didn't agree with totally but went "Hmmm." And some of the articles I liked. (I will say as I get older that the ratio of things I disagree with that piss me off (PMF again) to the things I disagree with and go "Hmmm" to seems to be increasing).
1 comment:
trust me, puck & i both understand (we're both in omaha, lol). the public transport in this town stinks. omaha goes out past 180th st, and the bus only goes to 144th. what about those people who can't or won't drive, whether it be economics or nerves (i knew a woman who was so nervous in traffic she would jump if she was riding along. i learned to ignore her after a while, lol). i try to walk where i can, but when it's more than a mile to the store, and i've got both boys, it ain't gonna happen.
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