The Size of Thoughts

From the always entertaining (and often thought-provoking) Nicholson Baker, this volume of decidedly offbeat essays gathers his opinions on such subjects as commas, reading aloud, model airplanes, nail clippers, and wine stains. Baker specializes in phenomena that all of us notice in passing; he, however, doesn`t just notice but actually analyzes them, with unfailing wit and invention. In Books as Furniture, for example, he looks at the tomes that appear on tables and desks in mail-order catalogs (Pottery Barn, the Company Store) as adjuncts to the merchandise, and draws some surprising conclusions. THE SIZE OF THOUGHTS also includes the essay Discards, about the demise of the card catalog and the problems with modernization in public libraries, a subject which Baker goes on to explore at greater length in his 2001 book DOUBLE FOLD. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.