David Cherry's blog

I hope you had a chance to take last week's challenge. With all the news zipping at us from all directions these days, it was nice to be reminded that peeling it off the page is not just a viable option, but in many ways a better one. I had a chance to whittle down the stack of New Yorkers gathering dust on the nightstand. That's right, The New Yorker isn't just a  collection highbrow of cartoons. It features some of the best long-form journalism going today by writers like Susan Orlean and John McPhee among many others.

Ok! Onto this week's challenge! We're moving from earthbound facts to the far reaches of space. We want you to read something out of this world. There are an almost infinite number of directions you can go with this one. How about some straight-ahead, blow-your-mind space travel science fiction, like Firebird by Jack McDevitt, or Leviathans of Jupiter by the prolific and always reliable Ben Bova. Or you can go for some straight-head, blow-your-mind out-of-this-world nonfiction, like Everywhere and Everywhen: Adventures in Physics and Philosophy by Nick Huggett. Or you could go with a more nuts-and-bolts approach, like the Apollo Mission Reports. Or you could reach back to the beginnings of U.S. space exploration and the people who made it happen with Tom Wolfe's still stylish, The Right Stuff. Whatever you choose, leave us a comment and let us know about it!

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Library: I've always found it fascinating that so many of our funniest artists lead such unhappy private lives: think comedians like Buster Keaton, W. C. Fields, and Lenny Bruce, or writers like John Kennedy Toole, and Dorothy Parker. So for last week's challenge to read about someone who intrigues us, I read the recently published biography of one of my all-time favorite seriously funny writers, Kurt Vonnegut.

But with this week's challenge, we want to lighten things up a bit. We challenge you to read something that makes you laugh, and HCPL has plenty of books that fit that bill. We've got nonfiction that will make you titter, snicker, giggle, chuckle, chortle, snort and guffaw, like Tina Fey's Bossypants, and David Sedaris' Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.

I hope you liked last week's challenge to revisit a childhood favorite as much as I did. I dug out some of my old Classics Illustrated and gorged my way down memory lane: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. (yeah, I was kind of a creepy kid).

This week, let's saddle up and read a book about Texas, by a Texas author or set in Texas. I encourage you to learn a bit more about the Lone Star State's singular history; enjoy one of our great tale-spinners like Larry McMurtry, Mary Willis Walker or Cormac McCarthy; swoon over a rugged Texas hero; or--in the spirit of all great Texans--strike out on your own and find something that fits you like a good pair a boots. Whatever you choose, let us know about it!