This time the silence is not my fault. I haven’t been able to access the server since I got back from Louisville on Sunday night. I’m still not sure why but it magically fixed itself last night. I think I had a very successful trip to Louisville. Met up with a lot of old friends and made some new ones. Downtown Louisville is odd—there’s no one around and not a lot of businesses. It reminds me of Huntsville, AL where I grew up. We managed to find some restaurants and bars in which to entertain ourselves until the wee hours of the morning (booksellers are an investigative lot). The focus of this educational weekend appeared to be shopping locally and going green, which tie together when you think about it. I back now with a million new ideas that we’ll hopefully be able to implement over the next few months.
I ended up bringing along K.J. Parker’s Devices and Desires anyway. I didn’t want to wait until Monday to resume reading it. Now of course, I have to read the other two just as big books in the trilogy. I came back from Kentucky with an even longer reading list. On the plane back, I started Tony Horowitz’s forthcoming book A Long and Strange Voyage: Rediscovering the New World. Horowitz realized that he’s forgotten a large chunk of American history. We all learn 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue (not to mention he never stepped foot in North America), Jamestown, and the pilgrims, but what about all the other explorers? What do you know about Coronado and de Soto and the Vikings? He sets out to journey to the places they encountered and see what sort of legacy they left. If you’ve read Confederates in the Attic, his account of exploring the Civil War’s mark on the South, you’ll remember that Horowitz is at his best when describing the people he meets along the way. I’m about two thirds of the way through and have already learned some interesting factoids.