New arrivals to my stack of Books I Want To Read:

Bright Lights, Big City. By Jay McInerney. An interesting foray into the second-person narrative that a good friend of mine just recommended. I liked the movie which featured a dark and complicated portrayal of the book's protagonist by Michael J. Fox. So we'll see.

Throwing Fire. By Alfred Crosby. Exploring the history of projectile warfare, from hairy apes throwing rocks to not-so-hairy apes throwing cruise missiles. There's a personal dimension here, too - I had the good fortunate of spending an evening at Mr. Crosby's Austin, Texas residence, when I was a student intern for an NEH-sponsored summer seminar that his wife was directing. At the time he had just written an excellent book called Ecological Imperialism : The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, a thesis which ended up being popularized by Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, though the former book is a more dispassionate inquiry into the matter I think. I had a Tecate and some chips and salsa with the one guy on his back porch, though, so perhaps therein lies my bias. In any case, I'm looking forward to cracking this puppy open.