Irregular Books

The problem with Lie Down With Lions is that what information there is gets lost in an unsophisticated story with shallow characters who behave in completely predictable ways. I understand that characters need to act out of their own motivation, and in such a sense should be predictable. What I can’t stand about this book, however, is that the motivation of the characters is so cartoonishly simple.

It seems that my son is amused most by the turning of pages and a quick scan of the pictures, although he’s willing to sit still for a reading longer than he would otherwise. Spot in the Garden is perfectly designed to have a quick pace so as not to bore the really young ones.

I can’t explain the sense of deja vu I have about this book other than to note that the book is itself a sort on a deja vu project. It covers the territory of a world without humanity… once again, with investigations of what would happen if, all of a sudden, human beings disappeared from the face of the Earth?

How did the book hold up to the test of time? Actually, its warnings were quite well made. Shrub was a well done documentation of Bush’s short and skimpy pre-presidential professional and political life. A string of failed businesses financed by his father’s powerful friends followed by a string of successful elections financed by the same people is what brought young Bush to the most powerful political position on the face of the Earth.

The term organic doesn’t mean small, or good to workers, or fossil-fuel-free, or healthy for animals, or non-corporate, or sustainable. Some people have presumed that organic was equivalent to such nice qualities, but such mistaken presumptions have always been inaccurate, even before the development of large organic food operations.