Is the mission being accomplished?

In thinking about the goal of this blog (namely, basketball, books and the search for the third thing), I've been wondering if I'm achieving what I've set out to. I feel that my two or three readers would probably accuse me of failure to deliver on the books promise. Basketball we know is covered, and I think the search for the third thing is underway. I've been working hard on it and hope everything will work out.
But okay, books. Here is the list of the most recent books I have read, complete with no-holds-barred critiques.

The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology – Robert Wright

I'm not ready to discuss evolutionary psychology with any sort of depth. This was a very interesting book and has made me think more deeply about motivations for certain actions. This book took me a very long time to read, but it was worth it. I would like to find Robert Wright's more recent book, Nonzero, at my local library and give it a whirl as well. If you want more Robert Wright (or any, if you've had none), you can find him regularly parrying, and occasionally speaking about evolutionary psychology, with Mickey Kaus on www.bloggingheads.tv.

Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon – Michael P. Ghiglieri and Thomas M. Myers

This one I am ready to discuss. When it comes to books that are exhaustive lists about the way to die on a certain part of the Earth, this is my favorite of all time. It can be incredibly sad, incredibly funny and incredibly instructive all at the same time. The chapter on the 1956 airliner collision over the canyon was also very interesting to me since I knew very little about this particular episode - although maybe that doesn't say much of my knowledge of aviation or geological history. Also, to my readers who may be interested, one of these writers is a Flagstaff doctor who regularly treated people injured in accidents in the canyon or tried to save their lives, sometimes unsuccessfully.

Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time – David Edmonds and John Eidinow

This book offers some great insight into the paranoia of the Soviet Union at the time of the Fischer-Spassky match. It also delivers the nugget that Fischer's father was not who he was told, but actually a physicist, who happened to be a Jew, which is extremely ironic to anyone familiar with Fischer's current wingnuttery and anti-Semitic conspiracies. The book is held back by the fact that it doesn't explain much about the strategy involved in the actual matches. The sideshow is abundant; the show itself lacking. Also, there is no current interview with Fischer, which is understandable, but would have made the book more exciting. Still, a solid read.

A Confidential Source – Jan Brogan

A garbage, throwaway mystery that my boss gave me because it was about a reporter. He occasionally gives me these books, which I always dislike. I've yet to like a book that was sent for free to our office. Maybe that says something about the books that need to be sent to our office begging for a review. This book wasn't horrible, but it was far from great.

Current read: The Skeptic by Terry Teachout. This is a biography of H.L. Mencken. I snagged this for $2.99 at my local book shop. I dig it's bargain racks, which usually have a couple good finds, such as the Fischer-Spassky book. I think the Mencken book will be good. I just got started but like it so far.

Well I hope this post, if anyone actually got through it, gets me a little closer to fulfilling my stated goals. Because without that, I'm afraid there's nothing. I apologize for the heavy use of the word interesting. Writing that uses the word interesting a lot is hardly ever interesting. That is a sad thought to leave with, but alas, I'm not a writer. In fact, I'm hardly a blogger. But I'll keep at it, just for the sake of the goals. Happy reading!