On the Nightstand

Lately I find myself splitting my reading time between re-reading old favorites and trying out new books (usually gifts from birthdays or Christmas that stack up.) I just finished reading a bunch of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House on the Prairie, The Long Winter and Farmer Boy.) It's quite a different experience reading those books as an adult and new parent: as a kid I found them to be exciting adventures of the American frontier, but as I'm older the gravity of their situations really sinks in. It's almost survival-horror.

Following that trend, I reopened Into Thin Air and couldn't put it down until I'd read through twice in a row. (Then I finally bought the Everest IMAX DVD, whose filming coincided with the disaster, but that belongs in another category.) Finally, I picked up A Wizard of Earthsea again. It's still right up there (albeit slightly below) with Lord of the Rings for my favorite fantasy books.

On the new books front, I'm in the middle of Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture. It's pretty interesting, mostly looking at the roots of modern day massively multiplayer communitees in D&D groups. Richard Garriot features prominently as a character, so it's fun to compare the stories we've heard from our friend Clint (who works for him in Austin.)

I also recently finished a book I'd gotten for Christmas called His Excellency: George Washington. It's a pretty accessible history, someone's making a good business out of publishing similar-looking books on the Founding Fathers (I read the John Adams book last year, and have seen others on Jefferson, Franklin, etc.) My most helpful resource in the last few months has been The New Father: A Dad's Guide to the First Year (thanks again, Em!), and following a recent re-read of the trilogy I read Sauron Defeated, a sort of making-of featurette where Christopher Tolkien compares early versions of The Lord of the Rings to the finished work.