Norman,

I just finished Baker's first book. Thanks a lot for lending this to me.
It's been a trip to read . . . you never really get a feel for how similiar
all of our lives are, partly because we're all so afraid to bring up "mundane" details because others would think we weren't being important.

This book is an inspiration. The language and power of his evocative
ramblings is quite impressive. Subtleties like his calling the motion we use to clean our glasses a "bribe me, bribe me" gesture abound in this book.

I wish the people critisizing my Gravity notes for their "rambling" could read this book. Sometimes it's not the big points, but the little ones, that are most important, and if anything, that's the point of Baker's book. The very idea of cataloging the frequencies of the thoughts we have... it borders on severely compulsive, almost insane...BUT we think these things all the time.

What a difference between what we think and what we tell others. It took some courage to write a book like that. Even standing behind the comfortable fact that the gimmick would sell couldn't have sheltered Baker from the tender question: "But will people care?"

I'd like to read more of him. I cannot imagine what he'd come up with if turned his gaze toward less of-the-moment concerns. I kept wanting him to talk about love, and relationships, and ego, and quest for meaning ... which he did in his way, but in the guise of everday business, which is wonderful.

It's the sort of book that'll come to mind very often, I can tell.

Anyway, kitty wants out. It's 6am and he's got some squirrels to torment. Very impatient, this child of mine.