Against The Day / (np) Alas, Babylon

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

worked thru lunch, so, maybe later on the on-topic stuff...

Glenn Scheper -
> 
> 1. I sat on the long-open book, and broke its unbound spine
> right after page 375, a notable value (3/8) on the same day
> that interesting boundaries were claimed on prophecy lists.
> 
>

I haven't abused my copy to that extent yet.  However, there are
a few coffee stains & so forth.

"interesting boundaries" --- hmm, also a term that might occur
on math lists...??-

I notice that a lot of people say they make notes in the book.
I hardly ever do this.  Should I start?  

The few times I've done it have been a mixed bag.  In a trance
state, I once underlined passages in Art Kleps's book _Millbrook_
(about Leary's retreat in upstate New York) that were pretty fun
to look at later.
But the few, tiny notes I've made in Finnegans Wake and GR strike
me now as unworthy...I guess if you keep adding more, they get better?


---
on Dave's recommendation, I read Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank.
Liked it.  Sort of a more grounded Heinlein?  
In reading these type stories, it always makes me appreciate our
own level of culture - lacking perfection though it is -
and how my choice to "opt out of violence" would be pretty
meaningless in a place where marauders were looting etc...