It's also really gripping and a pretty quick read, if that helps!

There's also some discussion of how the sherpas get to the top all the time but never get credit and how guiding idiot climbers has become their main source of income.

It's also really gripping and a pretty quick read, if that helps!

This. I loved it.

It convinced me to never try mountain climbing

And definitely this.

Also, it has a "rich bitch" character that you could be catty about.

There's also the question of whether Krakauer's own presence on the team actually contributed to the fiasco: knowing Outside Magazine was covering the expedition may have led to some faulty decision-making. Because they would get great marketing press out of it! Also, the question of whether the commercialization of mountaineering is a good thing, and the use of all this high-tech equipment. Do we want just any Joe off the street to be able to summit the world's highest mountains? What's that say about exploration, if anyone can do it? Does it negate earlier expeditions without that kind of support?

Also? Nature always wins.

It'd be a great paired reading with Joe Simpson's Touching the Void, which is just as harrowing, and yet in which nobody dies (unbelievable as that is).

I don't like the cold much, and I don't have any interest in summiting any 8,000-meter peaks, but some day I wouldn't mind climbing Mount Whitney, or Mount Shasta...

I did the book talk and several boys wanted the book. Yay and thanks for your help! I gots to read that one, too. It sounds fascinating and scary.

It's Banned Books Week, so get out there and celebrate your freedom to read!

Most Challenged Books of 2006

The university is doing some book readings several afternoons from some banned books, and of course the library had their display. I mentioned to some co workers last week (when the article was in the paper) that I really enjoy banned book week. They thought I was crazy. I tried to explain why I liked it -- some people are trying to hide the books, and instead every year it's a celebration of those books and there's more publicity.

The paper said there were 2 challenges this past year at the public library, both over movies. One was the unrated version of In the Cut, which the library decided to remove (they don't normally carry the unrated versions of movies) and the other was Breaking the Waves, which they decided to keep.

I came across a quote that reminded me of the books and decorating discussion.

"I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves."
- Anna Quindlen

So I went to the mountains this weekend and picked up Empire of Ivory on the way, and finished it by midnight last night.

Unspoilered response: I enjoyed it. It covers a lot of ground, there's a lot of action, and the ending was something of a surprise.

Spoilery comments: I was impressed and intrigued by Lawrence's decision at the end, and by the complicated structure of the Tswana peoples, where dragons and humans are not differentiated in the political and legal life of their empire. (Although presumably only important people get to be reincarnated as dragons.) Both of those, along with the many references to the abolition movement, really reinforce the concept of dragons as independent sapient people.

Of course, we're left with a hell of a cliffhanger. My prediction is that the treason is covered up and Lawrence loses his official position but ends up sent somehow on a mission to the New World... they can't afford to lose Temeraire, and they know they can't have him without Lawrence. But they're not going to let him get away scot-free, either.

More amusingly, SPN fans should take note of the names, personalities, and relationship of two young characters introduced about partway through the book. t snickers

SPN fans should take note of the names, personalities, and relationship of two young characters introduced about partway through the book.

Hee! I thought I caught that, but since I'm not a SPN-watcher, it didn't completely jump out at me. If that makes any sense.