Those who know me well know this - I am a reader. I admit to having a kind of ADD-style of reading, whereby I read widely on a subject, all the while reading widely on a variety of other subjects. This makes for a large, somewhat eclectic, book collection...arguably the best kind. It also means I am constantly besotted with a particular book, author, or topic, which I in turn am trying to foist on friends and acquaintances, or inject into everyday conversations. If you have suffered through this, I apologize retroactively! Readers will recognize the symptoms, and will relate, commiserate and join in. Non-readers will wonder what all the excitement is about, and where can they rent the movie version?

Since reading is so important to who I am as a person, I imagine I will be sharing recent reads on these pages. I will try and recommend more than I review...who the hell needs another literary review smugly announcing why you should read this or that book? I know I enjoy getting book recommendations from friends, and I dig getting a glimpse of their literary enthusiasms...it is a little like opening the lid on someone's brain, seeing how they think and internalize what is important to them. So, here's a bit of what has been stimulating my recent brain activity, for what it is worth.

James Howard Kuntsler's most recent piece of non-fiction, The Long Emergency, is a must-read. It challenges mainstream and widely held ideas on peak oil, suburbia, technology and progress, the West's car culture, the addiction to fossil fuels, geopolitics, environmentalism...you name it. He goes sacred cow tipping, big time; it is both bracingly refreshing and bloody scary. It also serves as a wake-up call - neither the market nor the government will effect the societal, economic and political transformations required to "save our asses." He stipulates a long series of reality checks are coming (some are happening as we read), and self and societal delusion, made myopic by a deeply ingrained and widespread sense of entitlement, will give way under the "trauma of the Long Emergency."

Read this book...share it with people...leave a copy on the bus, in the airport...better yet, in the mall.

Check out his website and blog as well...he is an important voice in our time. http://www.kunstler.com/