Oversized Books

Just got back from the library with 25 pounds of books. That’s right; I’m now measuring my library borrowings in poundage. I got me five oversized books to wade through.

One thing this geek enjoys is thumbing through a book while I lounge at the foot of my living room couch, stretched out along the floor, while the wife watches the tube and the kids amuse themselves with their Fischer Price miniworld. It’s relaxing. I’m happy, so the rest of the fambly’s happy. I can explore different worlds and still be on hand to answer those questions and requests that begin with a plaintive “Daddy? …” or “Honey? …”

Since I’m trying to focus on reading only two books at a time (see the sidebar to the left), I try to borrow books that I don’t necessarily have to read through cover to cover. All non-fiction, they’re mostly weird or esoteric stuff that I think will either help my writing or take my mind of the stresses of life. Recently, I’ve thumbed through numerous books on UFOs, JFK assassination theories (pro and con), astronomy, Fortean miscellany, Biblical representations in painting, philosophy encyclopedias, self-help inanities, food and nutrition guides, web-site building manuals, writing career and inspiration paperbacks, nuclear disasters, military histories, etc, etc, etc.

The county that I live in has this cooperative thingie in which all the local libraries participate. Therefore, my local town card is good at all 75 or so municipalities in the county. So once I exhaust all the possibilities in one library, I hit another. This usually takes anywhere from three to six months. I’ve been doing this for five years now, every Saturday, and sometimes during the week, too. I’m on my tenth or twelfth library by now.

Then, today – I discover something totally awesome at my current library – the Oversize Books Section. Hence, me leaving the library today in the cool drizzle, 25 pounds of books cradled unsteadily in my still debilitated arms, herding a four-year-old through traffic-riddled streets and parking lots.

The Oversize Section overawed me. These are the perfect books. Heaven’s library would be stocked with nothing but these tomes. Bigger-than-life, super-sized, chock full of all the useful and useless information and trivia you could ever want about your subject of choice, they are the perfect companion for me during family time. Some know them as coffee table books; but since I do not drink coffee, I call them by the sturdy, workman designation I’ve seen etched above those green metal utility shelving that hold them in the most awesomest library in the world: Oversized Books.

You’re dying to know what those five books were, aren’t you? Okay … here they are:

Two books on Greek mythology: The Complete World of Greek Mythology by Richard Buxton and Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece by Edward E. Barthell Jr. Don’t know why exactly as they just kinda popped out at me as I was scanning the shelves. The first has lotsa color pictures and maps; the second is more encyclopedic and laden with genealogies and charts. As a kid I absolutely loved Edith Hamilton’s Greek Mythology as well as such movies as Jason and the Argonauts, so a lot of this is a refresher course for me. There’s also an idea floating in the old cerebellum about an update of mythology, a la what Roger Zelazny did in Lord of Light, but its really just a tiny mustard seed at this point.

Next is The Macmillan Bible Atlas. Lots and lots of maps (262 COLOR MAPS the cover exclaims) from all periods of the Old and New Testaments. The ancient world, Israel, cities and towns, military campaigns, missionary journeys … very comprehensive from an overhead view. I like this. When I do read my Bible I sometimes get disoriented, especially since there’s probably over a thousand physical locations mentioned in the two-thousand-plus years the Bible covers. Plus, many of the cities you read about in Genesis are renamed by the time you get to the gospels. This atlas is something I wouldn’t mind buying, to keep on my reference bookshelf. I’ll probably renew it as much as I can (up to sixteen weeks) and keep it on hand.

My heaviest book, clocking in a 700 pages of the thick paper stock, hardcover and devoid of pictures, photos, or illustrations, is The Guide of the Perplexed by the 12th century Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides. Though it’s a traditional cover-to-cover book, there’s no way I’ll be able to read through it. Just don’t have the time, energy, focus and strength (Evelyn Wood – where are you?). But I’ve read about the philosopher, though not much of his philosophy. I’ll skim through it here and there, read whatever catches my interest, perhaps post about it later or not. I am drawn to this kind of stuff, probably from my Old Testament reading. It should be interesting, and I’m looking forward to traversing it, though at what depth remains to be seen …

Finally, this will really clue you in on the closet nerd that I am. The last book is … my college Calculus text! Calculus, 4th Edition, by Howard Anton. I had this book for three semesters (actually four, see here). I kept it for a couple of years and thumbed through it on more than one occasion. Every so often the math bug hits me; in a parallel universe I am a math teacher at a local college (interestingly, my father was a high school math teacher, though he never tutored me or anything). The last time it hit me was the fall of 2006, where for a couple of months I read a whole batch of books on number theory, and during my family’s vacation in Puerto Rico I read John Derbyshire’s book on the Riemann Hypothesis. This is the best calculus text book I’ve worked with. It’s interspersed with short biographies of prominent mathematicians and their contributions to the field, and I find it to really explain the big picture behind the formulae that not a lot of textbooks can accomplish – sort of the art behind the science. I lost track of the book (probably threw it out in frustration), so I am quite excited to have found it again.

That should keep me busy … until next Saturday’s trip.