The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber

i read this over 10 yrs ago; the card catalogue essay still enters my mind every time i walk in a library

Sublime series of essays on the minutiae of ponderings

Combine a gifted author with the ability to make a collection of essays on esoteric topics truly interesting and thought provoking and this book results. As a bibliophile - someone possessed with the sick need to own every book I read - I particularly recommend Baker's essay about the inevitable demise of those old card-catalog files in libraries in favor of the, admittedly,...more

Combine a gifted author with the ability to make a collection of essays on esoteric topics truly interesting and thought provoking and this book results. As a bibliophile - someone possessed with the sick need to own every book I read - I particularly recommend Baker's essay about the inevitable demise of those old card-catalog files in libraries in favor of the, admittedly, far-more-useful computerized systems in use today. As someone with a degree in English working with words every day, I enjoy his essays on punctuation and how the meaning of the word "lumber" has shifted over time. But Baker offers more than such high-brow fare; his wit and curiosity about things such as toenail clippers and model airplane paints make this well worth reading.   hide

Ugh. The same deep detail that makes his novels fascinating makes most of these essays a bit tedious. I ploughed through, because there were occasional great bits of information, but I didn't enjoy it much.