July 14, Wednesday evening -- Reading C.J. Cherryh

Enjoying a quiet bit of sidewalk in the Mission District
Reading Hunter of Worlds, by C.J. Cherryh. It's good enough, he said. He started reading it for lack of anything else to read.

When he was a child his favorite author was Edgar Rice Burroughs, who wrote the Tarzan books. Tarzan, he said, was nothing like the Tarzan in the movies, he was a savage beast. Here's a link to another Tarzan fan, who I interviewed in Cincinnati.

He likes books about war -- the author doesn't matter.

If he were to write his own book it would be about the illusions that Americans have about the American dream. He got a sad and very serious look in his eye, and told me that people don't look for the truth, that no one knows the truth, and those who do look for it, they should only look for it if they really want it, because when you find it, there's no going back. Have you found the truth? I asked him. Oh yes, he said. He looked for the truth and found it, and doesn't regret it, and would do it again, though, and the look in his eye got even more serious and more sad when he said this, with less violence.