Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman

There is a place where time stands still. Raindrops hang motionless in air. Pendulums of clocks float mid-swing. Dogs raise their muzzles in silent howls. Pedestrians are frozen on the dusty streets, their legs cocked as if held by strings. The aromas of dates, mangoes, coriander, cumin are suspended in space.

As a traveler approaches this place from any direction, he moves more and more slowly. His heartbeats grow farther apart, his breathing slackens, his temperature drops, his thoughts diminish, until he reaches dead center and stops. For this is the center of time. From this place, time travels outward in concentric circles - at rest at the center, slowly picking up speed at greater diameters.

Who would make pilgrimage to the center of time? Parents with children, an lovers.

The perfect book for a rainy afternoon. This short book is a wonderful combination of fun and stimulation. Taking Einstein's theory of relativity, specifically his concepts on time, the author imagines dreams that may have run through the great thinker's mind. Each short chapter, typically 3-5 pages, imagines a different world where time is not as we experience it. For example, time may flow backwards, unevenly, slowly, quickly, etcetera.

It wouldn't too difficult to come up with ideas for different structures of time, but what the author has expertly done is to create fun, creative, and intriguing views on how these time concepts may function. The writing is superb, each chapter reading like a prose poem. A beautiful book which well deserved to be the best seller it was.

As They See 'Em -- Bruce Weber

Umpire nation also has its own language, or at least a patois, and it anything but delicate. The usual four-letter imprecations are well represented in the daily umpire lexicon, but it has one especially distinguishing feature: the word "horseshit".
For some reason, "horseshit" is specifically a baseball term, having been the most popular and utilitarian curse word in the game for generations, as familiar a locution at the ballpark as "strike three".
...At one game I attended, Alex Rodriquez, the Yankees celebrity third baseman, sauntered over to Bruce Fromming and gave him an unsolicited compliment, something about how much he appreciated all of Fromming's years of professionalism...when I asked Rodriquez about it the next day, he shrugged. He said Fromming, the longest serving umpire, deserved it. "After all, all we do is tell them they're horseshit," Rodriquez said.

Skip this book if you don't love baseball. Even if you do love baseball, this book will only satisfy avid fans who find umpiring interesting. As an avid fan, I liked parts of this book and learned quite a lot about umpiring. The book, however, is too long and would benefit from from serious editing. A few stories by old umpires are interesting, but the last half of this book seems to be nothing but story after story.

I have a greater appreciation for umpires, although I still find some calls by umpires, especially in my softball leagues, to be questionable or down right inexcusable. In general, I haven't found umpires to be the most likable people and that didn't change after reading this book. For example, we see the world of umpires to be a proudly sexist realm.

Dali & I - Stan Lauryssens

But the biggest surprise was still to come. To my amazement, the balding, mustachioed, wrinkled Salvador Dali, weary with age, far outsold superstars Warren Beatty, Raquel Welch, Ursula Andress, Dustin Hoffman, Woody Allen, and even Elizabeth Taylor, the all-time beauty queen.

That's when I got my first lesson in life.

Dali sells.

An interesting combination of deceit, money, and art. The book will make you look at the art world differently. Here we see an insatiable greed for money bring out the worst in people. The author is a proud con man who seems to have little guilt in separating people from their money through elaborate schemes and lies. If one is believe the book, which claims to be accurate, Dali was himself quite a con artist. We see Dali portrayed as someone who cares more about money than the art world which he uses and abuses. The author is a willing participant in dealing fake art.

There are similarities here with the current world financial problems. We see investors seeking unrealistic returns on their money, greedy middlemen, and people at the top, in this case Dali and his handlers, who laugh all the way to the bank. I enjoyed reading this book and gaining insights into the corrupt side of the art world. I found it hard, however, to get beyond the author's detached look and participation.