Hypotyposis on a Good Day

Lychee season!

Lychee season!
Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.

Living in California, I get so used to eating almost any food I want any time of the year. Lychees are an exception to the rule for me. When I see them at the market, I think of a few preciously short weeks in summer. There's no time like the present to (over-)indulge in them.

Writing a Book on Remixing Information

Since the beginning of July, I've dropped my time at the university to 60% so that I can have two full days a week to write a book. I originally set out to write on the subject matter of the class I taught in the spring, "Mixing and Remixing Information." That is, the book is geared to teaching how to combine the varied sources of information on the Web into a new and useful creation. After a couple of months of sporadic hard labor, with a solid book outline in hand, I am currently looking for a publisher. The conceptual framework for the book has held up to the scrutiny of knowledgable reviewers. Finding a sufficient market of buyers, on the other hand, remains a major hurdle. The book in its current form is pitched at programmers and designers who enjoy the process of creating programs and websites. In writing the book proposal, I was already challenged to broaden my audience from hardcore programmers to non-programmers who are nonetheless comfortable with the Web. Now, I strive to reach a still wider audience. I can't imagine many of my friends' reading the book as outlined, for instance. How can I write a book that would captivate people such as my friends and family who certainly use the Web but who don't program? That's the question I'm now exploring.

On Reading More Fiction

I wish I were a more avid reader of novels and short fiction. When I walk into bookstores, I gravitate towards the shelves of nonfiction books, where I am able to dive into particular books and size them up quickly for their content, style, and enjoyability. When I look at the fiction section, I am lost. I've recently forced myself to take up reading a novel or two. Some weeks ago, I borrowed Anansi Boys: A Novel from the Berkeley Public Library. I forced myself through the first two chapters but finally decided to return the book unfinished. I didn't have to finish what I had started, Laura reminded me. Two weeks ago, while browsing the new books at my church library, I decided to borrow Gilead: A Novel. Reading about Marilynne Robinson's book in The New York Review of Books had made me receptive to picking the book up in the first place. At about fifty pages into the novel, I've decided that I would like to push towards the end. I can't say that I'm excited about the book; rather, I've grown mildly affectionate for the narrator and now want to see how the story turns out. As I read more fiction, maybe I'll turn how to more quickly size up a work. So far, I have had to withhold my judgement, giving myself over to the author more than I would usually do for any work of nonfiction, just to decide whether to read the whole book. Is this an issue of commitment?

Netflix and TV

Laura and I have been enjoying our Netflix subscription even though we've become minor couch potatoes. We've been watching lots of TV series (As Time Goes By, Numb3rs, The Dead Zone) but occasionally, some movies slip into our queue. Laura recently introduced me to Frederico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria. I want to see more Fellini; La Strada arrived several days ago and awaits our viewing pleasure.