response 1 of 88:

Jul 12 23:55 UTC 2000

In the books cf there is Item 39: Summer Reading Lists! 

response 3 of 88:

Jul 13 00:30 UTC 2000

Yeah, really.  I was about to enter my own list in this item, and now I 
feel all guilty about it.  (Maybe gypsi could retitle it The Summer 
2000 Reading List Item and rcurl could link it to books?)

I recently bought the latest edition of the gigantic Baseball 
Encyclopedia, which you can't stop browsing once you start.  You look 
up and three hours have passed.  My old one was ten years out of date.

I'm reading The Perfect Storm because someone said the book is way 
better than the movie.  

I picked up the Library of America edition of Wallace Stevens on sale 
in Farmington a couple of weeks ago and I can't stop reading it and 
rereading it.  Ditto a new Borges collection.  They were the Baseball 
Encyclopedias of poetry and prose, respectively.  

I recently bought a new biography of Mary McCarthy by Frances Kiernan 
called Seeing Mary Plain that is *way* better than Carol Brightman's 
Writing Dangerously.  McCarthy was a great social satirist and deep 
down I suspect she was a sweetheart, but to many people who knew her 
she was a vile bitch and, up until about the age of 50, perpetually 
oozey-pantsed for any reasonably presentable man who came along.  Any 
book about her is a good read, but this one is really exceptional.  

I reread Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac last month -- the only book of 
hers I'd ever read -- and liked it so much I went out and bought her A 
Private View at that second-hand book shop in Farmington.  

I think I'm set until September.

response 5 of 88:

Jul 13 02:56 UTC 2000

I just finished reading item 307 in Agora.  It was fantastic.

I'll probably read it again tomorrow, as I get the feeling it's a work in
progress.

response 7 of 88:

Jul 13 05:51 UTC 2000

Oh yes - here are all the Summer reading items in books:

39 114 Summer Reading Lists!
   <linked item>
 40 157 Summer Mystery Quote Item
   <linked item>
 53 230 The Mysterious Quote - Summer 1996 Edition
   <item is frozen>
   <linked item>
 54 131 The Summer Reading List Item...
   <linked item>
 59 108 Summer Mystery Quote Item
   <linked item>
 72  65 The Mysterious Quote - Summer 1998 Edition
   <linked item>

response 9 of 88:

Jul 13 12:40 UTC 2000

Biggity-bam!  Title changed.

I'm reading two books right now, which tends to be odd for me.  I'm reading
Peter Straub's "Ghost Story", which was highly recommended after a friend found
out I love Stephen King.  It's really good so far.  I wish I had more time to
read it since it has that suspenseful, campfire story feel to it.

I started "The Silver Wolf" by Alice Borchardt last night.  This book was
recommended since she's (as they said) Anne Rice's sister.  It's okay so
far...I hope it picks up a bit.  It hasn't grabbed me  yet, but I'm doing my
"three chapters then I'm outta here" thing.

response 11 of 88:

Jul 13 13:55 UTC 2000

(Rane... shut up already)

response 13 of 88:

Jul 13 14:24 UTC 2000

AIGH...if I hear that name one more time...  <birdy runs away screaming>

FWIW - I keep meaning to start that series.  Everyone is raving about it, and
we're still swamped with orders.

response 15 of 88:

Jul 13 15:45 UTC 2000

Summer 2000 agora 307 is now linked to books 93.

response 17 of 88:

Jul 13 16:54 UTC 2000

Jane Austen is more of a "girly" author, but I love her stories.  They're fun.

Some children that were interviewed at Borders during the Harry Potter Orgy of
Greed said that they preferred reading these books to watching TV.  They also
said it has encouraged them to read other books during their summer break
instead of watching "boring daytime TV".  You should have seen me jumping
around like a ferret when I read that article.  =)

response 19 of 88:

Jul 13 19:47 UTC 2000

        I'm not sure I agree on his conclusions about "bits per second", but
the rest of the book is indeed fascinating.

response 21 of 88:

Jul 14 04:02 UTC 2000

Uh... a ten bits per letter, and five letters per word, that would be a word
a second.  No, I don't think I have the patience for that.

response 23 of 88:

Jul 14 06:55 UTC 2000

You only need 5 bits per letter, so if you that would be two words per
second. But it is more complex than that - the brain can "chunk", and the
unconscious can construct and emit words as entities. This "chunking" of
words does not, however, come from conscious mind - you do not construct
the words *in* consciousness, but rather emit them whole, dredged up from
the unconscious. If you think the words you speak come from the conscious
mind, please explain in detail exactly how the words are constructed there
(it takes years for children to learn how to do this as it is, and it is a
process of training the unconscious mind). 

Now, if you insist on doing ASCII in your conscious mind, then your
conscious action has to be to speak the *letters*. Doing so, of course,
also draws upon having learned how to, and chunking letters. But still,
with five bits per letter, you would have to *speak* ten *letters* per
second to reach 50 bps. Try it. You can probably get up to 25 or so,
unless it is a memorized (trained)  sequence, like the alphabet.