First Entry

I have been tearing through the required reading for this class. It looks to be approximately one book per week.
I started with "Wanderlust: A history of walking, by Rebecca Solnit, which was not too bad. I started to read it at Burning Man this year, and incidentally it was a terribly year for riding bikes. The Playa was completely torn up and so most everyone left the bikes at camp and just walked, or rode art cars.
I thought it was an interesting coincidence that I should find myself WALKING at Burning Man for the first time since '98 (when I didn't have a bike.) As I read the book I took note of how being on foot actually forced me to interact with Black Rock City in a different way. The city was more palpable, and concrete, in the sense that I had more time to grasp and digest the events, objects and people that I encountered.
On Saturday, during the terrible dust storm I remembered that I'd left my book on the table in our kitchen area. I ran outside to retrieve it. The wind and sand whipped the pages and suddenly I noticed a signature on the title page. "Rebecca Solnit" WOW! I had a signed copy! What a shocker. I got the book off an Amazon used sellers page for about $3.00. I guess the seller didn't realize it was a signed copy. After that a feeling of remorse fell upon me. I had let the book get dirty, battered, and even set my drink on the cover a few times. I tended to leave it open and face down, bending the spine. Dang......now I'll try to take care of it better.

About 1/2 way through Rebecca's book I started to get bogged down, and a little bored so I switched to the other text: The Railway Journey: The Industrialization and Perception of Time and Space, by Wolfgang Schivelbusch. As soon as I started to read it I was sucked in. I found the change in time/space perception to be fascinating. In fact it seems the railroad technology influenced the prevailing paradigm of that time in a radical way. I also enjoyed the comparison of British to American style railroads very intriguing, indeed both choices of design and function seem to reflect the difference in culture very well.
I was able to finish this book last night, as it truly held my interest all the way through, so I guess now I'm back to the walking book. . . (sigh) I have a lot to read before tomorrow.

that's all for now,
A. Daerice