Mad Hungry Mind

Soon to Be a Blackberry

Now a blossom, but soon to be a fruit:

Bad Hungry Mind?

The post silence here at MHM does not mean I have not been blogging.  Instead, it means I have been working hard to get a good pace going at my health care blog, Rural Doctoring.

I made a decision some time ago to keep creativity and healthcare blogging separate from each other. I don't think most people want to hear about long labors and difficult births when they are looking for posts about poetry or keeping a journal. Likewise, most healthcare workers don't want to be confronted by posts about conceptual art or breakthroughs on the Shakespearean stage.

However, divided blogging means divided attention. Now that I have a good pace going at Rural Doctoring, I'm going to resume posting several times a week here, especially since I get to go back to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival at the end of the month.

NYT: Unease About E-Books

In an article about the NY Book Expo, the NYT reports booksellers and publishers are worried about the future of the printed book in light of the popularity of e-Book readers such as the Kindle.

Now, I love my Kindle. Since getting it, I'm reading more than I ever did before. But have I stopped buying print-and-paper books? No! Since Kindle entered my life, I have bought the following:

• Three books about childbirth practices, from used booksellers
• Two anthologies of American Splendor
• A copy of Taking Care of Our Own, by Susan Garrett
• Several books about information marketing

And I have plans to purchase other books. What the worriers forget is that reading begets reading. The more we read, the more we read in all formats.

I'm a New Convert: Harvey Pekar/American Splendor

Perhaps you'll think I just crawled out of a cave, but I never heard of American Splendor until my friend convinced me to watch the film based on Harvey Pekar's life.  I loved it!

Now I'm reading some of the anthologies still in print.  I'm amazed at how deeply his stories of everyday life resonate.  His voice unifies the different styles of artwork in which American Splendor was illustrated.

I have a feeling I'll be more involved with comics/graphic novels from now on.

Visual Journal: Traci Bunkers

I love Traci Bunker's work.  She posts pages of her bold, nakedly honest multimedia journals here. Worth a good long look.

Samuel Johnson on Tea

Tea's proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence. ~Samuel Johnson

The Weekly Wrap: May 16-23, 2008

Every week, a few blog posts get me thinking and asking questions.  I'm grateful for the prodding.  Here's this week's selection:

Thanks to Chekov's Mistress for pointing me to Sentences, which got me thinking about reading fiction critically once again.

Thanks to Classical Bookworm for raising the question:  should the OED be printed in the era of the electronic record?  My personal vote is yes; I have the condensed OED, and there is nothing quite like browsing through a page of arcane words to whittle away a few minutes on a dull Sunday afternoon.

1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die....or, maybe not

Great review in the NYT about this book, which would tell us all what to read during the precious remaining years of our lives.

Nice to have a goal, but better if you set your own bar.

Fun for Word Hounds

I was looking for a good definition of "physicianship" and discovered Wordie.Org, which is a kind of a social wiki-dictionary project. If you like words, check it out. (Oh, and "physicianship" had no entries, but I might just fix that...)

Listening to Sonny Rollins....

...gives me the strength to go on.

Here Sonny plays with Jim Hall on bass, and a couple other great musicians whose names--shamefully--I don't know.  The music speaks for itself: