NEWS EVERYWHERE BUT NOTHING TO READ
I have to admit that for a news junkie, I haven't been reading many of the newspapers lately. I've been numb to the details of the attacks in a way I've never reacted to a story before. I've been hitting a few books in the past three weeks, and that seems to help. Although I think my best reference point for this whole thing was Thomas Friedman's globalization tome The Lexus and the Olive Tree, which I finished reading Sept. 10. There's a section in the book where Friedman describes bin Laden as a "super-empowered angry man." He argues that an individual can become just as powerful as any nation-state if he figures out how to master the game. Besides that, I'm shuffling among a few books depending on my mood. I started Friedman's history of the Mideast, "From Beirut to Jerusalem" when I boarded Greyhound to New York. I bought Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War in hopes of informing my anthrax/sarin gas fears. And when I'm totally overwhelmed, I retreat to "Experiencing Architecture," -- required for the urban architecture class I'm taking at NYU. Oh heavens, stop everything. There's a new Onion to be read: "U.S. Urges Bin Laden To Form Nation It Can Attack." Go there now, read about the "new breakaway republic called, say, Osamastan." Laugh and be happy.
- posted by Amy @ 10/04/2001 10:46:00 PM