fleeting Wednesday night

[winterbadger]

Got home after 8, dinner by 9, now it's 11, and I really need to go to bed so I can get up tomorrow early and run my puny mile or so. Grr...

Regretfully finished: Wonderfalls, which my friend Nick loaned me. I *adored* it! I should get him some herring as a thank you. Or loan him The Tall Guy. Or Firefly (since A. is illegally acquiring a copy elsewhere :-) I totally adore.. well, pretty much the entire cast and the writers, but especially Tracie Thoms and Caroline Dhaverans--two simply delicious ladies.

Latest TV amusement: NY-Lon, a tragicomedy (or comic drama) about an Englishman who falls for a visiting American and tries to court her long distance. Gee, I have *no* idea why I'd like that. :-) It's taking the place in my affections, at least momentarily, left by Keen Eddie (a Fox show, like Wonderfalls, cancelled even before its prime) about a NY detective in London. Also stars Navin Chowdhry, my current favourite Anglo Indian actor. Too funny--BBC America is just showing this series (from 2004) and another he was in (Teachers--rather funny too) which dates from 2001. Nothing like the latest news... (NC was also in the hilariously awful The Seventh Coin, with Peter O'Toole and John Rhy-Davies *shudder*; I didn't recall that, and I think it must just be the scarring of my brain from the wicked badness of that movie.)

Picked up Anansi Boys today after several glowing reviews by LJ friends. Also bought several books about Iraq (which look good though depressing) and Eragon, since it's been getting very good press too.

OK, go to bed early (relatively) tonight, get up early, get to work early(er), come home early(er)? Then maybe finally start transcribing my trip journal and editing, posting my photos. It's been, sheesh, over two weeks, (and four months since the May trip, which I never wrote up...)

Oh, and I actually got a mildly positive reposnse from someone whose personal I responded to. Sounds promising; we'll see what happens...

Comments

[pusscat.livejournal.com]

I just got "Anansi Boys" too, but I have sort of told myself I will finish Jung Chang's Mao biography first. I don't usually read history - this is fascinating, but quite heavy going (both intellectually and physically - it's not one you want to carry around, which puts a bit of a damper on things).

And I was also given "Hokkaido Highway Blues" as a birthday present, which is probably what I want to be reading most of all.

[winterbadger]

Well, and I really *should* be finishing the reading for my Middle East class. Which is interesting enough, it's just that as soon as reading beceoms something you *ought* to do, it immediately becomes less appealing.

[deridere.livejournal.com]

Ah, was that on last night? I thought I'd set up the DVR to record all new episodes. Hmm.

[winterbadger]

What, NY-Lon? Actually it's on Tuesdays at 10 and Wednesdays at 2; I was watching it off TiVo. :-(

[deridere.livejournal.com]

The first episode? Okay, I had that on the DVR, but not the second. Darn

[winterbadger]

Yeah, what I was watching last night was the second. :-( Sorry, if I'd known I would have saved it for you...

[deridere.livejournal.com]

No worries. Darn, I did miss the second then, oh well - repeats.

My favorite Wonder Falls quote

[selki.livejournal.com]

Best friend: "Do you know what happens when you repress things?"
Main character: "They go away?"

Re: My favorite Wonder Falls quote

[winterbadger]

Yes! There's just so much good writing in it. Wit, charm, humour--no wonder it got cancelled! :-)

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

What books about Iraq did you pick up? I am woefully ignorant about the happenings in the Middle East.

[winterbadger]

Ha! Allow me a few minutes for typing. Currently our little Mid-East affairs library includes:

US policy, generally and in the Middle East
American Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy (Ivo Dalder & James Lindsay)
Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground (Robert Kaplan)
Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib (Seymour M. Hersh)
The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-First Century (Thomas P.M. Barnett)
Plan of Attack (Bob Woodward)

ME history and affairs generally
What Went Wrong?: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response (Bernard Lewis)
Sacred Rage: The Wrath of Militant Islam (Robin Wright)
Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia (Ahmed Rashid)
From Beirut to Jerusalem (Thomas L. Friedman)
The Lexus and the Olive Tree (Thomas L. Friedman)
Longitudes and Attitudes (Thomas L. Friedman)
The Future Security Environment in the Middle East (Ed. Nora Bensahel and Daniel L. Byman)
The Arabs: Journeys Beyond the Mirage (David Lamb)
Arabia: A Journey Through the Labyrinth (Jonathan Raban)
A History of the Arab Peoples (Albert Hourani)
Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East (Daniel Bates and Amal Rassam)
A Short History of the Arab Peoples (Sir John Glubb)
The Islamic Bomb (Steve Weissman and Herbert Krosney)

Iraq
The Iraq War Reader: History, Documents, Opinions (Ed.: Michael Sifry and Christopher Cerf)
Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem--Once and for All (Scott Ritter)
Thunder Run: The Armored Strike to Capture Baghad (David Zucchino)
No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah (Bing West)

AQ and Islamic terrorism
Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror (Rohan Gunaratna)
The Islamic Threat: Myth ore Reality? (John L. Esposito)
Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden Radical Islam, and the Future of America (Anonymous)
Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror (Michael Scheuer aka Anonymous)
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (Steve Coll)

Then there are the separate sections on Israel & Palestine (large and heart-rending), Iran (small but growing), Afghanistan (small) and Saudi Arabia (limited but disturbing)...

Now, of that I've probably read about a quarter. A lot of the general ME titles are Chris's, from when she was Middle East editor at the CS Monitor.

My suggestion for where to start out would be with Thomas Friedman (probably Longitudes & Attitudes) and Bernard Lewis. That will give you at least two people's opinions on what some of the underlying issues are.

[winterbadger]

Oops, forgot Sandcastles: The Arabs in Search of the Modern World (Milton Viorst)