Thursday, May 20, 2004

This afternoon, I walked to Andronico's and back with my nose in a book. I bought bread, cheese, milk, and some ice cream, and dined on French onion soup -- with my nose still in a book. I finished the book a little while ago, and the first thing that caught my eye was my copy of volume 2 of the Feynmann lectures, sitting unread at the end of my bed where I'd put it after I took it out of my backpack.

I read a little from Feynmann today, and a lot of Flynn this evening. I enjoyed Flynn's second book as much as I enjoyed the first, but I'll probably read those books just once. Okay, maybe I'll read them two or three times -- old books, like old friends, both need to a visit now and then. But in all, I'll spend more time with the Feynmann lectures, and that's as it should be.

Feynmann would have been quite a novelist if he'd ever turned his hand to it. He lived a sufficiently novel life that his autobiographical books come close. But I'm more impressed by those lecture notes than ever I'd be by novels. He chose his genre well.