OK. Not going to have the time for the retroblog today so that's still on hold. It'll be the long one to write so I am of course putting it off. The easy one, since its already written, would be story time, but I'm not letting myself off the hook. So instead, its reading update time. This one will be short.

What is the What (Eggers) is one of the best written books I've ever read. If you haven't read it, your life is less complete than mine. That is my review of that book. Also, right before I last left NYC, Mo and I went to hear a reading by Eggers and another author writing about tragedies in Africa (specifically Nigeria) at the 92nd Street Y. My opinion on most great writers is that they're not as smooth in person as you would expect them to be based on their journalistic expertise. Eggers was no different, but it was still cool to get my book signed.

Continuing with the crisis in Sudan theme, one of the next books I read was Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End the Genocide in Darfur and Beyond (Pendergast / Cheadle). The book was good but not a lot of news to me. I've been involved for a while now, this was more focused on people who aren't aware of the problems. The information has been out there for years, though, for those who cared to inform themselves. And that's not to in any way claim that I got to the party when I should have, I was shamefully late myself.

I needed something a little less heavy after that so now I'm about halfway through A Prayer for Owen Meany, which is also great.

I lost my copy of Of Mice and Men, I completely quit studying the Afrikaans for myriad reasons, the most prevalent being a lack of time. I started Lewis' A Grief Observed (again) but then put that down for a while too. Since I lost my short Steinbeck read, I started Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (again) - don't ask me why my brain works like that, but it seemed fitting enough. I think I'm just avoiding starting my next, longer Steinbeck read, Grapes of Wrath. Its not that I don't want to read it, its that for some reason I don't like being in the middle of two thick books at the same time, and Owen Meany's thick.

I've decided my wish-list of books I want to get is way too long at the moment, plus I have a number on my desk to churn through that I can't even remember all the titles of, so instead, here's a few random ones I expect to read soon:

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (Keller) - by my pastor in NYC, a nice relief from Dawson's The God Delusion, et. al. the other atheism / agnosticism books of late.

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (Dillard)

Blink (Gladwell) - in my continuing endeavor to not read popular books at the zenith of their market appeal.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (Lewis, not the one I read as regularly, though)

Healing the Children of War (Kilbourn) - one of my colleagues on this project who's familiar with my pipe dreams got this for me, and I plan to get it from her when I'm in LA. If Uganda works out, this will be read before I get there.