January 15, 2008 -- Tuesday evening

Reading Medical-Surgical Nursing, by Sharon L. Lewis, RN, PhD, FAAN; Margaret M. Heitkemper, RN, PhD, FAAN; Shannon Ruff Dirksen, RN, PhD; Patricia Graber O'Brien, APRN BC, BSN, MA, MSN and Linda Bucher, DNSc, RN.

He just started working at the VA hospital, out by Lands End--a nice bike ride from the Mission.

A book he'd rather be reading--Wizard of the Crow, by Ngugi Wa'Thiong'O, a crazy story set in a make-believe country in Africa. The link is to a Salon book review that makes the book sound amazing.

Something good he's read recently--Memed, My Hawk, by Yaşar Kemal, translated by Edouard Roditi. (He is not a birder--neither book is about hawks or crows). It was recommended by his Lonely Planet Turkey guidebook. He also read Orhan Pamuk's Snow, shortly after leaving the town where it was set.

When he was a kid, and his family went on trips together, he would read in the restaurants at dinner and be so absorbed that his family would sneak off and see how long it'd be until he noticed he was the only one left at the table. Fifteen minutes was about the longest. He read a lot of sci fi and loved Roald Dahl. He also recommends Dahl's adult fiction. Dahl, he said, is a weird dude.