pinkasphalt

The Lost Symbol
Dan Brown

(2.5/5)

Passably enjoyable. Formulaic. Second half completely predictable. Not sure why author needed six years to do research.

Better than Angels and Demons (I think, but maybe I am letting my memory of the book be tainted by my memory of the film). Not as good as The Da Vinci Code.

Nonetheless, I do like this genre and so based on some research, I am going to read The Club Dumas next (in English because I am totally lame), and then take another stab at Foucault’s Pendulum.  Who knows maybe I’ll even re-read The Baroque Cycle.  Or not.

There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere…

Jane Austen – Mansfield Park

Me and you Sethe, we got too much yesterday, we need more tomorrow.

Beloved,Toni Morrison

But why … bother? Does it really matter if the Yangtze river dolphin, or the kakapo, or the northern white rhino, or any other species live on only in scientists’ notebooks?

Well, yes it does. Every animal and plant is an integral part of its environment: even Komodo dragons have a major role to play in maintaining the ecological stability of their delicate island homes. …. Ironically, it is often not the big and beautiful creatures but the ugly and less dramatic ones which we need most. …

There is one last reason for caring, and I believe that no other is necessary. It is certainly the reason why so many people have devoted their lives to protecting the likes of rhinos, parakeets, kakapos and dolphins. And it is simply this: the world would be a poorer, darker, lonelier place without them.

- Last Chance to See, Douglas Adams & Mark Cawardine

Tonight I watched the first episode of the new Last Chance to See. Sigh.

A poem written by Neil Gaiman for Tori Amos’ then unborn daughter, now made into a book for everyone to pass on to their own blueberry girls.

Link: Because my obsessiveness knows no bounds.