Timing

I always have a nonfiction book going along with several novels. Nonfiction makes a nice counterpoint to fiction, a sort of palate cleanser. But while I can have more than one novel going at a time, I can't do that with nonfiction, I start to confuse the facts if I do. I put in a request at the library about three months ago for In Praise of Slowness. There were several other people ahead of me. Still, I dallied when I finished the last nonfiction book and didn't start a new one until last night. Now I received notice that In Praise of Slowness is at the library. Figures. The book I started last night is Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos. It's physics without the math which suits me just fine. I have always found physics fascinating but when you add in the numbers to go along with the theory I panic--m-m-math! I'm really going to enjoy this book too. How could I not be sucked in when chapter one opens with Greene talking about his father's books in a dusty old bookcase? How can I resist when, a few sentences later, he talks about feeling like Gulliver among the Brobdingnagians? And how can I resist when, as he goes along writing about the nature of reality, he keeps bringing up Camus? Plus, he's kind of cute in a geeky scientist kind of way. But physics will have to wait while I read about slowness. The ironic thing is, both books are about different aspects of time. Perhaps there will be some interesting cross-pollinization. Stay tuned...