Books

This week has been a mixture of the busy but non-eventful.

But probably not for the hundreds of people who have made their way to our agency for temporary housing. We are one of the housing agencies who was contacted by city officials to help the Gulf Coast evacuees find housing in our great state.

I'm keeping my powder dry since I'll have a great blog entry tomorrow evening. Which reminds me of a joke - How do you keep a (Aggie, Moron, Fill in Your Own Derogatory Term) in suspense? Tune in tomorrow.

The only thing I really have to comment on today is (wait for it) books and music. Who would've imagined.

I told you about the music Chris brought up for me to transfer over to my computer. There is a function on iTunes that let's you know how many songs have been downloaded and what the total playtime is. With just the music I have now, I could press play, come back 4 1/2 days later, and not one song would have been repeated. Moreover, I could drive from my house to Colorado and back, and not hear the same Sinatra song twice. Pretty cool, huh?

And I still have another 85 cd's to go.

On Monday, we also made our monthly jaunt to the bookstore. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, I just wanted to go book shopping. We ended up spending $50 - at Half Price Books. Fifty bucks at that store can get you a ton. As we were walking in the door, Melissa asked if I had set a limit for myself. I told her yeah, I would stop when my back started to hurt from lifting all the books I wanted to buy.

To show how varied (read, undisciplined) my tastes are: a book about the Anasazi Indians from the Four Corner's area (When I was but a lad, we went on a family trip to Mesa Verde. I was absolutely amazed that such a great civilization flourished then just disappeared. The Anasazi were a different tribe, but their story is the same); a book about the 1666 fire that destroyed London; a book about the history of gin (I read a review about this book a couple of years ago and it sounded interesting; it's more a socioeconomic analysis of the the spirit - how it was was consumed by the hoi polloi of London. Now, it is associated with a pretentious, elitest, snob who insists it be shaken, not stirred.) Then a companion book about Bob Dylan and a reference book about jazz songs - the who, what, when, and where's of it all.

It's hard to imagine the loss of life and property that the Gulf Coast residents are experiencing. As a lover of all things historical, it's difficult to imagine the loss of books, documents, and other historical items. If I were a flood victim and just told that my dog, family, and other loved ones were safe and secure, but I lost my book collection, I'd still be utterly inconsolable. I'd be one grown man crying like a little girl.

I need up update my list. I started one a couple of months ago and promised to share it. I've gotta be nearing 500 (not counting Melissa's).

Some people gasp when I mention I have that many; personally, I think it's a pretty good start. I read a article in the paper last week that mentioned people who have home libraries with volumes numbering about 15,000. Talk about impressive.