Simple summer pleasures

There is little more refreshing than fresh, ripe strawberries and shortcake on a warm summer afternoon, especially when, though it's sunny, the air is fairly stagnant. It was worse yesterday and there was little to be done. But today? Strawberries and shortcake--perfect!

Keeping myself entertained

Last book read: "Ghost Hunting" by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson with Jan Michael Friedman. Based on my guilty pleasure, Sci Fi's "Ghost Hunters," the book chronicles many, many alleged cases of hauntings investigated by The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS), the stars of said TV show. It's a pretty straightforward book for its type, explaining cases chapter by chapter, offering up conservative conclusions about most of the cases, talking about TAPS' investigative techniques and so on. It was fun, with a limited amount of new material (in other words, cases that hadn't been shown on the series), and some interesting photographs in the central insert. In some ways, the familiarity of some of the cases was comforting, but none of the cases were really scary per se in that the writing was more reportorial than it was especially narrative. Reporting, by its nature, is rarely suspense inducing or chilling. But because I'm that kind of geek, I found it all interesting and read right through to the end. Kept me busy while I was traveling to, in and from Baltimore.

Currently reading: "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore. Yes, I'm catching up on a lot of back reading. What can I say? Will post about the book when I'm done, but I'm about halfway through and enjoying it enormously, as predicted by the many friends who have heretofore recommended the book to me.

Not sure what's next. Maybe a LeCarre or a Ludlum. Maybe not. We'll see.