Art Consumption Down: Reading, Movies, TV, all seemed to dissipate of late. I can't think of a single movie or TV show I saw this month worth mentioning.

For months now, I've been reading bits and pieces of Tender is the Night and will likely finish it this month. I certainly understand why it has always had such a mixed reputation. Fitzgerald's drawn a very compelling lead character that has really hit home strongly for me. But the story and structure are something of a jumble, and if you don't identify as strongly with the lead, I doubt there would be much of interest.

I've also been struggling through John Derbyshire's Unknown Quantity, which is a history of algebra for the layman. Of course, by layman I mean someone who can still solve quadratic equations and can grasp concepts as abstract as matrices and fields and all sorts of stuff that I have not encountered since undergrad. It's a mental challenge, certainly. Derbyshire makes the valid point the algebra = abstraction in its purest form and even in a layman's tome like this, your powers of abstract thinking will be challenged to the utmost. Derbyshire writes exceeding well and clearly and interjects biographical stories of the key algebraists to humanize the topic, but unless you're the kind of person who solves brain teasers for kicks, you may find yourself in over your head. I know I have.

My reading list is quite full. Next up will certainly be less intellectual reads. I have my eye on a mystery (Thus Was Adonis Murdered, by Sarah Caudwell) and a spy thriller (The Devil's Alternative by William Forsyth).

Actually, what I said above is not entirely true. HBO re-ran the entire series of John from Cincinnati in a marathon (it was only nine episodes, I think) and I watched it. The show's problems were not diminished on a second viewing and, frankly, it deserved cancellation, but I liked it even more than I did the first time. It helps to view it as an absurdist ensemble comedy, which it was, at least as much as anything else. I still think Ed O'Neill deserved an Emmy.