Life of Buraian

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

I just finished reading a fabulous little book called The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.  It tells the story of 15 year-old Christopher, an autistic boy (or perhaps he has severe Asperger's Syndrome, it never says and I don't know enough to tell) who finds his neighbor's dog, Wellington, has been killed and decides to do some detecting to figure out who did it. 

The book is written in the first person, by Christopher's character.  This gives us a glimpse into not just how he thinks, but how he understands the world around him and how he manages to survive in a world that is filled with ambiguities and uncertainties and way too many other people.  It also brings into reality the emotional challenges that come with raising or teaching a boy with Christopher's condition.

The book is part mystery novel, part adventure, and part memoir.  It's half exploration of the inner mind, and half commentary on the awesome overload of information we deal with, through the eyes of one who is least capable of dealing with it.  I'm not a book reviewer by nature (honestly, I forget most of what I read shortly after finishing it...I didn't even remember the main character's name and it's only been two days), so I'll just say that the closest book I can compare it to is The Catcher in the Rye.  I couldn't put it down and there was an honesty to it that really hit me.  It's been a long time since I read a book this good.

New Shelfari bookshelf and widget

My buddy Martin just introduced me to a new site called Shelfari.  Yes, the same Martin who probably didn't read a full book all the way through during his time as my roommate at UCLA.  I don't blame him, there was Nintendo to be played and Discovery to be watched, after all.  But something happened to Martin since he graduated, and he's now one of the most avid readers I know.  And not just fluff.  Some of the books have big words, too.

Anyway, back to Shelfari.  It's a place to create your virtual "bookshelf", where you can list your books (down to the specific edition), rank them, tag them, review them, and recommend them to others.  The site accomplishes this by integrating with Amazon, which actually bought them in 2008.  Personally, I think that means this site has a lot more potential.  There's still a number of features it needs before it can really kick butt, like:

White Rabbits - Percussion Gun

I've been listening to this quite a bit of late.  I think that qualifies it as "Recommended".

Rosso come il cielo

As I mentioned in my last post, Rika and I have been taking an Italian class.  Now that we've finally covered some of the past tense, we can actually talk about more than just what we're doing right now.  That is, if we knew any verbs.

As part of the class, we have to spend 24 hours in the "Language Center" on campus.  If you don't go, you fail.  Luckily, it's open from 9:30 to 6:30 Monday to Thursday.  As this doesn't work for anyone with a job, we've negotiated a nice compromise: we prove we've studied, and they give us credit for the time.  What's great is they've included things like "going to the Italian Film Festival" as studying. 

Rika and I studied Italian tonight.

The Genius in the Design

My wife and I are studying Italian.  Or, more precisely, she is studying Italian and I am enjoying attending some Italian classes with her.  Italy is Rika's new thing.  If it pertains to Italy, Italian, or has even a remote connection to Italy or Italian, I can't go wrong.  Apparently this applies to buying books, too.

My wife tolerates my book buying.  She's not as much a reader as I am, so when we're together I don't buy so many books.  I usually just stop by the store on my own, buy what looks good, then mix them up with other books on the shelf.  It's my way of expressing my independence.  Or being immature. 

Then I saw a copy of The Genius in the Design: Bernini, Borromini, and the Rivalry That Transformed Rome on sale at the local bookstore.  (You can see the Squidoo lens I made about it here).  I was with Rika, so I just kind of casually pretended I wasn't interested in it.  But when Rika saw me, she didn't give me that look that says, "You don't need that book.  You have a bunch of books you've still not read..."  Instead, she actually said, "Ooh.  I like it!  I'm so excited you're going to read about Italy!"

Women are weird. 

The Education Issue: labor market reforms or human capital policies?

I've never known whether to classify myself as a liberal-minded conservative or a conservative-minded liberal.  When people ask, I usually just say I'm independent.  I'm generally more interested in political process than I am political issues, and partisanship is my litmus test to whether I will discuss politics with a person: if you hold to a party line on every issue, let's talk about something else.

There is one issue, however, that I've always been interested in: education.  I personally believe it is one of the three biggest issues facing the country today, along with energy policy and our pending water shortages in the West.  In a recent column by David Brooks at the New York Times, he argues that education the most important issue, and he discusses a very interesting angle on it.

The Japanese Wife is in India!

That's right.  Kunal Basu's new book, The Japanese Wife is here.  As is MY Japanese wife, Rika.  Hence the pithy title...

When Rika arrived in India Sunday, we decided to spend the afternoon poking around the neighborhood.  We found a bookstore and in the bookstore we found a book reading by Kunal Basu and a theater actor named Munira Sen.  They were reading from the title work in his collection of short stories, The Japanese Wife.

It's a pretty original take on a love story.  A shy Indian boy writes a Japanese woman whose address he gets from a pen-friend magazine.  They exchange numerous letters and eventually agree to marry each other, despite never having seen each other.  For twenty years they exchange letters and gifts by mail.  There's another level to it as well, but the story itself is very short, just 16 pages long.  Still, it's very touching.

We also saw a preview of the movie they are making, and having now read the story, I'd guess that the movie will probably be even better.  The movie should have the time to explore the concept a little more.  Here's a decent review.  I suppose it remains to be seen, however (pun intended).  If you want a copy of the book (and don't want to pay $80 used through Amazon), let me know and I'll bring one home for you.  It's about $10 hardcover here.

As for the rest of my wife's first day, well, about that...

Dune: What a science fiction novel can be

I enjoy reading, but more than just reading I enjoy great books.  I'm not so picky about the genre, though I'd be lying if I said I was well-versed in the canon of romance novels.  But I'm game for pretty much anything else.  I dabble in all types of works: classic literature, social science, history & philosophy, business, science fiction.  What I'm generally looking for, what a book has to do to really "count" for me, is affect me in some way. 

And I'll tell you something.  Reading Dune, by Frank Herbert, did affect me.  It made me stop and think, "Damn, so that's what a science fiction novel can be."