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Hello.

I think, going on the evidence, that the best way to not be on hiatus while not blogging very much at all is not to mention that there is in fact a haitus going on. You've not stopped...you're just busy. I'm busy, not stopped.

My reading has really taken off lately. The books I've been reading have been so good I've started avoiding the eye of the Metro guy at my subway station and cursing the trains for running on time (on the rare occasion that they do). I just motored through the startlingly poetic and achingly visceral In Siberia by Colin Thubron which blew my mind, just as his The Lost Heart of Asia did. He is a wonderful travel writer. I just added Among The Russians to my wishlist, the third book of this travel writing trilogy, although I'm unsure of the respective timelines of the three journeys.

A few days ago I started Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker, a book renowned for twenty years for its clear statement of the known scientific facts and popularised explanation of the mechanisms of evolution. All the more topical, it seems, as Dawkins is hitting headlines at present. I read The Selfish Gene last summer and while Dawkins' style is clear, methodical and easy to follow and lays out complex concepts well, the opening chapters of The Blind Watchmaker lay into religious figures' takes on evolution rather smugly. I can understand a biologist's frustration and need to explain and set things straight, but there is an edge of vociferousness to Dawkins' rebuttals that I think may have matured in the 20-odd years since The Blind Watchmaker into his current anti-religious stance.
Thoughts, anyone?

I have a great reading queue set up. In Siberia and The Blind Watchmaker came from Krissa for my birthday, and Ghostwritten by David Mitchell is next in line, with So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld following that.

I'm flying to England for a week or so on Friday night. Lots of plane journey reading.
This'll be the first time I've been away from Krissa since October 2004. It feels weird.