Just finished Dickens' Dombey and Son, his longest novel. It is not great. It starts really well, with excellent writing, characters and descriptions. But about halfway through, it plateaus, and then coasts for a long time -- hundreds of pages -- and then ends. Oh, there is a little excitement with Edith and Mr. Carker toward the end, but this is too little, too late.

I think Dickens blew a chance to have a really exciting story by paying some attention to Walter after he sails. Walter could have had all sorts of interesting adventures, involving wild characters, as he sailed and then was shipwrecked, and rescued, etc. Similarly with Uncle Sol in his travels.

But, no. Dickens just has them go away, disappear, be taken for lost, and then has them simply show up near the end of the book, safe and sound, and they don't even tell us their stories. Quite disappointing.

Still, this, the best paragraph in the novel, is superb:

Through the hollow, on the height, by the heath, by the orchard, by the park, by the garden, over the canal, across the river, where the sheep are feeding, where the mill is going, where the barge is floating, where the dead are lying, where the factory is smoking, where the stream is running, where the village clusters, where the great cathedral rises, where the bleak moor lies, and the wild breeze smooths or ruffles it at its inconstant will; away, with a shriek, and a roar, and a rattle, and no trace to leave behind but dust and vapour: like as in the track of the remorseless monster, Death!

I will continue to read all of the novels of Dickens. So far, I've read the grey ones:

• Dombey and Son (1.95)
• David Copperfield (1.91)
• Bleak House (1.91)
• Nicholas Nickleby (1.86)
• Martin Chuzzlewit (1.85)
• Little Dorrit (1.85)
• Our Mutual Friend (1.83)
• Pickwick Papers (1.72)
• Barnaby Rudge (1.41)
• The Old Curiosity Shop (1.19)
• Great Expectations (1.01)
• Oliver Twist (0.91)
• A Tale of Two Cities (0.78)
• Hard Times (0.58)

The numbers are proportional to the length of the book (they should be
approximately the number of characters in the novel, in millions).

Only four left.

I just finished reading Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens. I liked it pretty well, and read it faster than I usually read his works. Jenny Wren is certainly the most interesting character, but the plot is really the interesting element in this one, with more twists and dark passages than some of his novels.

My favorite sentence from the book: "Mr Wegg pursued the biography of that eminent man through its various phases of avarice and dirt, through Miss Dancer's death on a sick regimen of cold dumpling, and through Mr Dancer's keeping his rags together with a hayband, and warming his dinner by sitting upon it, down to the consolatory incident of his dying naked in a sack. "

Thus, I am one novel closer to reading all of Dickens' novels.

So far, I've read the grey ones:

• Dombey and Son (1.95)
• David Copperfield (1.91)
• Bleak House (1.91)
• Nicholas Nickleby (1.86)
• Martin Chuzzlewit (1.85)
• Little Dorrit (1.85)
• Our Mutual Friend (1.83)
• Pickwick Papers (1.72)
• Barnaby Rudge (1.41)
• The Old Curiosity Shop (1.19)
• Great Expectations (1.01)
• Oliver Twist (0.91)
• A Tale of Two Cities (0.78)
• Hard Times (0.58)

The numbers are proportional to the length of the book (they should be
approximately the number of characters in the novel, in millions).

I probably won't read another until next summer; there are other things I'd like to read now.

For years now, Jenni and I have wanted more shelf space in our house. I figured I could build some shelves, and I looked around for a while for a good plan. At Instructables, I found this one. I modified it a bit, and used four foot 1x12s for the shelves, and seven feet long 1x4s for the verticals, but otherwise I followed the plans exactly. I made two of these. One, for the basement used regular hardware, plain nuts and zinc plated (ick) fender washers, since that's all they had at Home Depot. For the other one, I get black oxide fender washers and brass (hell yeah!) acorn nuts from McMaster Carr, a fantastic place to buy hardware and other stuff. Also for the second shelf, we got wood at our local Dunn Lumber. For the shelves, we actually got steppers, so they are quite a bit thicker than standard 1x12s, and they have a rounded edge, which we put at the front of the shelf. Using the acorn nuts requires cutting the all-thread more carefully, but it everything worked perfectly. Cutting the all-thread is perhaps the most time-consuming part. I used my angle grinder with a cut-off wheel, and that goes pretty fast (you could easily use a hacksaw, though), and then you need to clean the threads at the end with a file. Still, not hard to do, and an easy job all around.

I'm very happy with the results. The shelves are a little flexible in the vertical direction, owing to the thin 1x4s. 2x4s would be overkill, but would definitely make the whole thing more rigid. I don't think this flexibility is a problem, however.

Here are some pictures.

The basement shelf, loaded with books:

The upstairs shelf, unloaded:

Closeup of the hardware on the upstairs shelf:

Loaded upstairs shelf, with hopefully temporary clutter:

The Seattle Library had their twice-annual Friends of the Library book sale on Friday. Jenni and I have a tradition of going, and then getting ice cream. It's two of our favorite days.

This year, like the last few times, I've concentrated on the art books. Here's what I got:

• Patterns in Space, by Col. R. S. Beard (1971)

A large format paperback with lots of illusrations of fun 2- and 3-D geometric concepts. A very nice looking book.

• The Technique of Kinetic Art, by John Tovey (1971)

A hardback in excellent condition. Covers a variety of mostly 2D kinetic art techniques and methods.
Includes electronic circuitry for building motorized art of the projected filter variety.

• Hidden Images: Games of Perception-Anamorphic Art-Illusion from the Renaissance to the Present, by Leeman, Elffers and Shuyt (1976)

An excellent collection of graphic techniques involving extreme viewpoints and intentional distortions.

• The Nude, by Kenneth Clark (1959)

A small, thick paperback on the history of the nude in art.

• Color: A Natural History of the Palette, by Victoria Finlay

Folks in my color theory class were raving about this.

• The Writings of Albrecht Dürer, translated and edited by William Conway (1958)

Dürer is one of my heroes, but I really don't know that much about him.

• Dürer, by H. Knackfuss (1900)

A monograph on Dürer. Lots of good illustrations.

• The World of Dürer, 1471-1528, by Francis Russell

A Time-Life large format book with some decent illustrations.

• On the Just Shaping of Letters, by Albrecht Dürer (1525, originally)

A thin, large format paperback about lettering.

• Drawing from Left: The Journal as Art, by Jennifer New (2005)

Lots of examples of famous folks' art journals.

• Perspective Drawing Handbook, by Joseph D'Amelio (1964)

A thin, large format paperback reference on perspective.

• Freehand Drawing: A Primer, by Philip Thiel (1967)
• Large format hardback with lots of exercises in line drawing.

• Drawing Made Easy, by Charles Lederer (1913)

An excellent old book covering many aspects of drawing.

• Pen & Ink Technique, by Frank Lohan (1978)

Not exactly "my style", but I'm always happy to get more pen and ink books.

• Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters, by Robert Beverly Hale (1964)

Large format paperback with 100 drawings analyzed.

Overall, a fantastic haul. All these for one dollar each (plus a membership), all going to support the library.

I finished reading Bleak House the other day. I only liked it so-so, which isn't good for a 900 page novel. The characters were a little too smooth, and not quirky enough for me. Plus the story arc really didn't finish in a very interesting way.

Still, I continue with my project to read all of Dickens' novels.

So far, I've read the grey ones:

• Dombey and Son (1.95)
• David Copperfield (1.91)
• Bleak House (1.91)
• Nicholas Nickleby (1.86)
• Martin Chuzzlewit (1.85)
• Little Dorrit (1.85)
• Our Mutual Friends (1.83)
• Pickwick Papers (1.72)
• Barnaby Rudge (1.41)
• The Old Curiosity Shop (1.19)
• Great Expectations (1.01)
• Oliver Twist (0.91)
• A Tale of Two Cities (0.78)
• Hard Times (0.58)

The numbers are proportional to the length of the book (they should be
approximately the number of characters in the novel, in millions).

What to read next? I'm thinking perhaps Nicholas Nickleby, since a lot of people like it a lot. I'm saving A Tale of Two Cities for last since it's the shortest. I know I have a copy of Our Mutual Friend, so that might be a good one. In any case, I'm not going to start until I've read a few other things on my "to read" list.

I just finished reading Wassily Kandinsky's book, "Point and Line to Plane". Absolutely terrible. It purports to be a book of his art theory, but it is so weakly written, all pseudo-scientific nonsense, with many, many undefined terms and notions. It is worse than useless. A complete waste.

At least now, I get to read something else.

Another successful library booksale/ice cream evening last night. Twice a year, the Friends of the Seattle Public Library has a giant book sale in an old hangar at Magnuson Park; we shop for our quota of 25 books between Jenni and me, then we go get ice cream. I had a cone of ginger ice cream at Molly Moon. I've had ginger ice cream elsewhere, but this was by far the best I've ever had.

Here are the books I got:

• Transition Curves for Highways, by Joseph Barnett (1938)

Transition curves are somewhat interesting mathematically speaking, but this struck me as
something I can stun students with: a book of tables. Plus, it had an old plastic triangle in
it! Score!

• 100 Ways to Have Fun with An Alligator & 100 Other Involving Art Projects, by Laliberte, et al. (1969)

An awesome little paperback with ideas of fun things to do.

• 507 Mechanical Movements, by Henry T. Brown (1991, fascimile of 1896 edition)

A great book with lots of examples of mechanical mechanisms. This is a hardcover edition in excellent condition. I now have two copies.

• The Drawings of Rubens, with an introduction by Stephen Longstreet (1964)

A nice, large format collection of drawings.

• The Drawings of Picasso, with an introduction by Arthur Millier (1961)

Another nice, large format, collection of drawings.

• The Drawings of Kley, with an introduction by Donald Weeks (1968)

One more collection of drawings in the "Master Draughtsman Series", these by Heinrich Kley.

• Photographic Vision, by Zvonko Glyck (1965)

A large format book about photograph and stuff.

• The Art of Drawing, by Bernard Chaet (1978)

Nice, general large format book about drawing. Lots of master examples.
(Oops, I already own this book, but this is a better copy, and I think, a better edition).

• Form, Space and Vision by Graham Collier

A nice looking introduction to a lot of drawing ideas.

• Photoimagination, by Robert Clemens Niece

Another picture book full of graphic ideas.

• Bridgman's Life Drawing, by George B. Bridgman

A Dover life drawing book, looks nicely serious.

• Modern Arf: The Unholy Marriage of Art and Comics: Artists and Models: The Naked Truth, by Craig Yoe

Lots of comics over a wide range of years.

• Vision and the Art of Drawing, by Howard S. Hoffman

A book with lots of technical vision stuff, and drawing.

• Photographic Lighting, by A. E. Wooley (1971)

A helpful book on photographic lighting.

Quite a good haul considering my recently deepened interest in drawing.

Last Friday was another fine Seattle Friends of the Library book sale at Magnuson Park.

Jenni and I and two other friends spent an hour and a half or so, and found some choice items, then had delicious ice cream at Molly Moon: they had "salt licorice" which was terrific.

Here's what I got:

• Pedagogical Sketchbook by Paul Klee

A thin paperback filled with thoughts of various graphical natures.

• Directions in Kinetic Sculpture, by Peter Selz

A short illustrated volume of a number of kinetic sculpture artists active in the mid 1960s.

• Foucalt for Beginners, by Lydia Alix Fillingham

I'm finding these "X for Beginners" books to be excellent bathroom reading, and I don't know much about Mr. Foucalt.

• The Starving Artist's Way, by Nava Lubelski

A collection of things to be made on the cheap. I like the cut of its jib.

• Passages in Modern Sculpture, by Rosalind E. Krauss

A nice, densely-illustrated book on the subject.

• Fun with Pens, by Christopher Jarman

A silly little book about calligraphy.

• Photographics: Line and Contrast Methods, by Par Lundqvist

A technical book on photographic methods to achieve certain kinds of visual effects. Perhaps ideas for digital filters?

• ...I never saw another butterfly...: Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp 1942-1944

A very very sad book.

• How to Draw Trees, by Gregory Brown

An adorable little book from 1943 on methods of drawing trees.

• Self-Exposures: A Workbook in Photographic Self-Portraiture, by Naomi Weissman and Debra Heimerdinger

An interesting set of self-portrait related exercises.

• Blackstock's Collections, by Gregoriy L. Blackstock

Delightful artwork by Mr. Blackstock.

• Practical Portrait Photography for Home and Studio, by Edwin A. Falk and Charles Abel

A very old-fashioned book on portaiture, with amusing chapter titles like "Women Over Thirty" and "Budding Manhood".

A good haul again.

Finished reading E. E. Cummings' memoir The Enormous Room about his time in a French prison during World War I. I'd never read anything but his poems. This was quite a good piece of writing, and you can find it from Dover for only three bucks. It's got a good bit of french in it, so if you are like me and only know a few french words, keep a dictionary nearby.

It is available to be read electronically at the awesome Gutenberg Project.

I'd be happy to pass my copy on to anyone who would like it.

This is perhaps my favorite passage:

Lily was a German girl, who looked unbelievably old, wore white, or once
white dresses, had a sort of drawling scream in her throat besides a
thick deadly cough, and floundered leanly under the eyes of men. Upon the
skinny neck of Lily a face had been set for all the world to look upon
and be afraid. The face itself was made of flesh green and almost
putrescent. In each cheek a bloody spot. Which was not rouge, but the
flower which consumption plants in the cheek of its favourite. A face
vulgar and vast and heavy-featured, about which a smile was always
flopping uselessly. Occasionally Lily grinned, showing several
monstrously decayed and perfectly yellow teeth, which teeth usually were
smoking a cigarette. Her bluish hands were very interestingly dead; the
fingers were nervous, they lived in cringing bags of freckled skin, they
might almost be alive.

She was perhaps eighteen years old.

The beautiful final paragraph is more cummings-like than the rest of the book:

The tall, impossibly tall, incomparably tall, city shoulderingly upward
into hard sunlight leaned a little through the octaves of its parallel
edges, leaningly strode upward into firm hard snowy sunlight; the noises
of America nearingly throbbed with smokes and hurrying dots which are men
and which are women and which are things new and curious and hard and
strange and vibrant and immense, lifting with a great ondulous stride
firmly into immortal sunlight....

Last night was preview night at the Friends of the Seattle Public Library book sale at Magnuson Park. These sales are held twice a year, and Jenni and I always attend: it's a favorite thing of ours. After the sale, we go out for ice cream.

This is the haul I brought in last night:

• Introducing Wittgenstein, by John Heaton and Judy Groves

I like Wittgenstein's writing, and, from many mentions in Bertrand Russell's autobiography, he seems like a very interesting character. This is a kind of comic biography/introduction to his work, suitable for casual reading.

• The Graphs of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

I read Of Mice and Men the other day, and though it was great, and felt I owed Steinbeck another read.

• Proposed Roads to Freedom, by Bertrand Russell

Another Russell book I've not read.

• This is not a Pipe, by Michel Foucalt

A short book about Magritte's famous painting.

• Adventures of Ideas: A Brilliant History of Mankind's Great Thoughts, by Alfred North Whitehead

I felt like reading something by Mr. Whitehead.

• Marx's Kapital for Beginners, by David Smith and Phil Evans

Another comic book introduction, this time to a book I really don't want to read.

• Mondrian: 80 Colour Plates, by Alberto Busignani

A little book with lots of Mondrian paintings.

• Graphic Idea Notebook, by Jan V. White

A very nice looking book, with lots of graphic ideas (e.g. layout, typography, etc.)

• Modern Prints and Drawings, by Paul J. Sachs

A nice collection of prints and drawings.

• Charm in Motion: A Collection of Mobiles, by Takumi Shinagawa

I'm interested in kinetic sculpture, and mobiles are the classic.

• Complete Drawing Course, by The Diagram Group

A nicely laid out, dense instruction book on many aspects of drawing. It's notably different from other drawing books I have.

• Drawing Peopls: How to portray the clothed figure

Not my favorite type of drawing book, but it has many examples of clothing problems encountered in drawing.

• Transcendental & Algebraic Numbers, by A. O. Gelfond

A classic.

• The Applications of Elliptic Functions, by Alfred George Greenhill

Picked up on a whim.

• The Four Color Problem: Assaults and Conquest, by Thomas Saaty and Paul Kainen

A nice book to have on hand when students ask the common question, "What research can you do in mathematics?".

Some good stuff there, I think.

Afterwards, we went to Molly Moon, and I had a cone of delicious salted caramel, as always.