READING, WRITING AND THE ARITHMETICS OF PUBLISHING

I'm overwhelmed every time I walk into a bookstore at the number of books published every year. It's a daunting task getting a book published. Even Jane Austen couldn't get Pride and Prejudice in print until her father paid for the first publication. My brother, Duane Ernst, was a great letter writer. He had studied English literature at the University of Chicago and later at UC Berkeley. He was the best read person I'd ever known and was capable of turning a bon mot. I asked him once why he didn't write prose and his response baffled me. He said that there was no point since anything he wrote would never be published. He died at fifty and all I have are a few letters from him which I treasure. I know how he felt now. I hope one day when I've 'thinned out' as Woody Allen put it, my sons and nieces will be happy to have what I put down on paper as something other than memories to remember me by.

THE STIEG LARRSON TRILOGY

I've finished reading all three books. I went through a day of withdrawals when I put them on the book shelf. While I don't think Larsson was a great, sometimes not even a good writer, I will miss Lisbeth Salander. Like Steinbeck's Tom Joad or Ludlum's Jason Bourne, Larsson's Lisbeth Salander gives the reader a sense of righteousness by association.

The Swedish film of the second book comes to Colorado Springs on the 29th. I hope that it's as good as the first film.

WARRIOR NATION

With the exception of a few years respite, my country has been involved in one war or another since I was one year old. 1950-1953 Korean War. 1957-1973 U. S. in Cambodia, Laos and war in Vietnam. 1983 Invasion of Grenada. 1983-1988 Iran Contra Affair. 1989 Invasion of Panama. 1989-1991 First Gulf War. In 1993 Soldiers killed during relief mission in Somalia. 1994-1995 Haiti. 1999 Kosovo. 2003-? Invasion of Iraq. 2001-2021 Afghanistan. I've left out the cold war with Russia and China and the Cuban Missile Crisis. When will this blood lust end?