Day 2

Okay, I've now made it through the first meeting with all my classes. Whew.

Fortunately, day 2 did not have any sartorial surprises for me. Plus, two of today's classes were well stocked with past (good) students. All-in-all, a better day. Tomorrow, though, it's back to the 2.5 hour macro class. Ugh.

Other than that, I did start reading A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines -- my new "review book" from the newspaper. I've only made it through the first few chapters, but I'm not getting a good feeling. First, the author is a physics professor. I realize some non-writers can pen good fiction, but I was skeptical. Second, the book is one of those "imagined lives" works. So far I've been reliving Alan Turing's tortured childhood. I've watched him get stuffed into the crawlspace under the floorboards and I've had to listen to him go through the day's activities to find out just what he did to deserve his punishment. I couldn't really follow it all, but it seemed to stem from his dislike of broccoli. Seriously; I'm not kidding.

Now how does Ms. Levin know all this? She doesn't, of course, but she's imagining what Turing's childhood was like. I don't know why exactly, but I'm usually not a fan of such historical fiction. I haven't gotten to much of Godel yet, but I'm expecting much the same.

Who knows, though, maybe I'll get past that once the story takes off? Even if I do, I'm afraid the book suffers from bigger problems. I wonder if Ms. Levin just likes to show off her vocabulary or if she's being paid by the syllable? Regardless, she loves big words and flowery descriptions. I could forgive that, though, IF SHE'D REVIEW THE BASIC RULES ON SUBJECT/VERB NUMBER AGREEMENT! Within 2 pages I found 3 such mistakes. This book is published by Knopf; didn't she have a proofreader/editor?

I admit to being a picky reader, so these may not be fatal flaws for the book. I'm hoping once I get past childhoods, something interesting will happen. Regardless, it's better than reading the intro chapters in the new econ book. See, a silver lining.