Reading and Living
I’ve just finished the last book in Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Science in the Capital” trilogy, Sixty Days and Counting, and it was of course great. As always, there’s some hard science fiction, but this one seemed to be more concentrated on the politics, the people, and their relationships.
I always find Robinson’s books so enthralling, and this was no exception. Some of the things that hooked me this time around were the frequent reflections on Emerson and Thoreau and the high Sierra backpacking, making me wish I had more time to spend outdoors. As an aside, Robinson’s Muir on Shasta (which seems hard to come by) and The Martians both had some fantastic backpacking, climbing and camping writing.
The Science trilogy (and to some extent the Mars trilogy) also had some good sections promoting minimalist living/. The Science trilogy, in particular, verged on romanticizing one of the characters living in a tree house built in Rock Creek Park, crashing in the shed of a fictitious Tibetan’s-in-exile embassy, and ending up living out of a VW van. It might be a bit over the top, but I really connected with this; I’ve rarely been happier or had as much fun as the half of 2004 when I was living out of Shuli’s dorm room, the Wheaton radio station office, and Simon’s apartment living room in Boston, and only had a backpack and a computer with me. These days I look around at my apartment and wonder what happened.
Using this as a jumping off point, I decided to read some more Thoreau next, starting with Maine Woods and Cape Cod.
Is Forty Signs of Rain the first book of the series? I like that one, but hadn’t gotten around to reading the other yet. I’m at the moment trying to finish re-reading Stephenson’s Baroque cycle…its so hugh tha a re-read was in order..and I picked up alot on much of the philosophy I missed last time which is pretty cool. Yea..I need to read the other two that come after FSoR.
Posted by: Matt on March 10th, 2007 8:28 AM