Reader’s Diary

Stephen Johnson

This in-depth book provides a real understanding of how digital photography works.  It’s a sharp contrast to the seemingly endless numbers of superficial “tips and tricks” books on the subject and is the digital equivalent Ansel Adams’ “Basic Photo Series”.  Johnson ends with essays on ethics of manipulation and on the new dawn of “straight” photography not limited by film’s deficiencies

Jay Worrall

Worrall’s hero, Charles Edgemont, promoted as a result of being the ranking surviving officer of a ship of the line at the  Battle of Cape St Vincent (1797) gains riches from prizes but doubts his courage.  He’s given command of a frigate, falls in love with a Quaker girl in England, and fights a larger French frigate.  The romance and the relationships of Edgemont, his officers, and crew are nicely drawn.  Cleverly, Worrall has his protagonist  meet a young Horatio Hornblower.

The novel is a tad anachronistic and doesn’t have the fine eye for period detail of some others in the genre, but it’s entertaining and fast-moving  The battles could be more vivid and imaginative; sometimes Edgemont’s victories seem too easy

J. Maarten Troost

Troost’s tale of his travels in China combine the best of Paul Theroux and Bill Bryson.  He has Theroux’s somewhat critical view of his surroundings leavened by  Bryson-like humor.   Troost travelled far and wide throughout China, occasionally in the company of a friend and comic foil.  He’s the best kind of travel writer: the kind you’d like to travel with. His adventures make for fascinating reading and he’s nearly cured me (painlessly) of any desire to visit China.

Isaac Asimov

This is the second “Foundation” novel and follows “Prelude to Foundation” in the series time line. Hari Seldon continues with struggle to develop psychohistory against background of the Empire’s decay.  Published one year after Asimov’s death at age 72, it’s poignant story of man aging.

Gregory Gibson

Book dealer Bob Langmuir stumbled on a collection of material related to a performer in Hubert’s Museum, a seedy New York City sideshow.  After acquiring the material he realized that it included a number of what appeared to be Diane Arbus photographs.  The story of how he came by the “archive”, how he had the photos authenticated, and how he tried to sell the lot should be a fascinating one.  It might be, if Gibson had done a good job of telling it.

Gibson can’t seem to focus.  Is the book about the side show, Bob Lagmuir’s marriage and divorce, issues of provenance related to Arbus photographs, or the ethics of buying low and selling high?  There’s way too much information about Langmuir’s family life and far too little about Arbus’s work at the museum. Gibson tries to ascribe cosmic significance to everything but his time would have been  better spent editing his sometimes-awkward prose.

The book’s natural conclusion would have been the sale of the material, but it ends before that sale takes place.  In fact, the sale mentioned in the book has yet to take place since further legal issues arose after the book’s publication.  Finally, a note on that title page that “the names of several individuals in this book have been changed to protect their identity” makes me wonder just what the real story is.

Sloan Wilson

This is one of those famous books whose very title is a catch phrase but that I only got around to reading recently.

By reputation it’s a book about conformity but it’s at least as much about post-war stress.  In that respect it reminded me of the classic William Wyler movie “The Best Years of Our Lives“.  The main character, Tom Rath, troubled by things he’s seen and done in World War II, starts out cynical about corporate life but flirts with becoming a company man.  To gain wealth he’ll have to devote his life to the job.  That decision is the heart of the book.  Like Sinclair Lewis’ novels the way the characters in this book live may seem quaint, but their feelings and the struggles they face remain familiar and relevant today.

There are some interesting parallels to other works. Betty Draper of TV’s “Mad Men” is very similar to Tom Rath’s wife, Betsy.  The Raths  have the same desire to escape conformity that the characters in Kerouac’s “On the Road” respond to, albeit in a less extreme way (Kerouac and Wilson wrote their novels at about the same time).

(There’s a nice short review here.)