My mom sent me I Am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert. I think there was some points where I died laughing. My coworkers spent the last week looking at me and going, "WTF?" You know any book that uses the terminology: "Nether sphincter" has to be, well, interesting. ;)

Much to my in-laws' silent disapproval, I've been reading AJ Jacobs' The Year of Living Biblically. Essentially, he's following the rules in the Bible literally, with interesting and varied results. Not only is it often hilarious, but I'm learning a lot about religion from a new perspective, my upbringing and personal beliefs aside. Next week I'll be reading about Victorian prose literature. :evil: Silas Marner remains the worst thing I've ever read.

I finished reading the new Inspector Rutledge mystery (A Pale Horse) by Charles Todd and the new Dame Frevisse mystery (The Apostate's Tale) by Margaret Frazer the last couple days. And now must wait another year :( Dame Frevisse would say I need to work on my self control and patience :) I thought both books were the usual good work by these authors. Both are more about untangling secrets and the caustic effects of hate than solving a crime (though crimes do occur). Both also feature characters I just wanted to smack. Repeatedly. Especially the apostate of The Apostate's Tale. She is seriously annoying. And now I have a book about Etruscans to read before the library wants it back.

I'm currently reading "How Doctor's Think," which just makes me think that "House" is even more true to life than I'd thought. The author is a doctor who once went to six different specialists for his own issues, and ended up with four different diagnoses. It's also interesting that he argues that mistakes -- which everyone makes, from small to large mistakes -- is going to happen. The key to being a good doctor is learning from those mistakes, and what you take away from them. Too many doctors, he said, become so wedded to their first diagnosis and first impression that they can't move on and come to the right conclusion. Even a great doctor who refuses to admit that they're wrong can then be a crappy doctor. Sound like CTB anyone?

I read that book too, Namaste. Groopman, right? The Harvard guy? Another interesting suggestion of his was that if you feel your doctor doesn't like you, find another doctor because that will affect your level of care. It seemed to work both ways though. One doc didn't want to cause pain to a patient he liked, so didn't order a painful test, and her condition worsened until he finally did have the test done and it was necessary. And not seeing patients a la House? Turns out to be a reasonable thing to do, at least in the sense that one doesn't get emotionally involved to the point that the diagnostic process is distorted rather than informed by personal feelings and intutions. Of course, getting a history and a read on the patient personally would give valuable information, but if House is getting that through the fellows, he gets both: impartiality and the relevant data. Then the drama comes when it turns out that House can get more information from a patient than anyone, so in the end, when he does it himself he gets what he needs (though often not what he wants ;-) )

I saw that in the bookstore the other day Namaste but didn't get it. Now I'll have to borrow it from the library. And at least a diagnosis is better than no diagnosis, as I've been there for four months one time - three specialists and three GPs couldn't figure it out and I'm still not convinced about it. I read a book a few years back based on the diaries of three med-school interns. Interesting read. Their lead prof compiled it with them and it talked about the rigors of the long day and how things just got to them emotionally. Turns out the idea that a 36-hour shift for interns is the worst thing ever (obviously) but they keep pushing them through as it's only tradition and the older docs had to do the same thing. Some states/schools have gone away from it and their doctors are better than the locales that have the unmandated hours.

Yep, it's Jerome Groopman from Harvard. (And I got it from the library myself arizonamyrie. I don't remember the last time I actually bought a book. I love books, I read them all the time, but I just have a revolving list of books I want to read, and when I'm nearing the end of one, pop the next one up on the on-line reservations file for our library, take in the finished one and pick up the new one. Better than Netflix. (And they've got great DVDs for free too. Win-Win.)

I could save so much money by using the library system, I'm sure, but it always seems to bite me in the ass. If I want to use the new, fantastic downtown library, I've got to pay to park. A couple of hours of downtown parking is more than the price of a new book. (Granted, I could have the titles delivered to a closer branch, but let's just go with the "I'm lazy" argument.) Beyond that, I'm inevitably late in returning books, so I usually rack up a bunch of fines. The idea that I can use 1 click shopping on Amazon---even with used titles---and not have to leave the comfy-ness of my home is incredibly appealing. Now, if the libraries could do online reservations + shipping, then I'd probably be all over that!

Seattle does the same thing, namaste. It works really well for me, as there's a branch about a mile from my house. So I can get a 2 mile walk and new books at the same time :) OTOH, I'm #32 in the queue for a couple books I have on hold. But they are $30+ books I'm not sure I really want to read, let alone keep for reference. So I'll just wait to reach the top of the list. I still buy a lot of books from Amazon, but since I'm out of shelf space, I'm trying to cut back to books I want to read *now* and will probably read again. Or books the library doesn't have new that I can get for under $10 including shipping.

I love books, but my library system isn't that good - we have a scary librarian at our satellite library, horrible hours, and it's a long drive with expensive parking for the better ones. We can order stuff online within the system, but you have to wait about two weeks to get it. Amazon/Barnes and Noble are cheaper/faster. And a few friends and I pass the books back and forth to each other, so it helps. Plus, with my schedule, I end up having to renew a book five times before I give up and just send it back unfinished.

Interesting that library systems differ so much. Here you can have your selections mailed to you, you can reserve books online, you can even download current movies for free (they expire after a week) but my connection isn't fast enough. But I love our library: it's so cool to reserve stuff when you hear about it and then when it comes in, I've forgotten about it half the time and it's like a little treat! Though I have to agree about the renewing: sometimes I've had books out for a year to get them read. Then I have to give up and say it's just not meant to be...I miss the inhouse Starbucks they had there for a while, but I guess that was going too far. Oh, recommendations? I've never read Georgette Heyer (thought she was just romance) but Stephen Fry tells me (indirectly) that she's enjoyable so I'm giving her a shot (Cotillion). Also, if you liked the Gun Seller and you haven't read Len Deighton, try the Ipcress File, you won't be sorry.