I turned 40 last week. Amy took me to Cabo to the incredible One&Only Pamilla Resort with family and some close friends for an amazing week off hedonistic fun, no blogging, minimal phone, and minor email (I had a few deals that I was keeping an eye on – I only got in trouble a couple of times as we also called this Q4 vacation.)
I read less than normal for a week off (since I spent a bunch of it playing with my friends), but still managed to enjoy three books.
- Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman’s Last Journey: I idolize Richard Feynman – in my next life, I’d like to be more like him. The story of his obsession with traveling to Tuva is magnificent, a great bit of history, and super perspective on communication with Russia during the cold war (pre a bunch of technologies that we currently take for granted).
- 722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York: I picked this one up at the Strand Book Store on a recent trip to New York. It’s a fascinating history of the creation of the New York subway system. Lots of politics, industrialists, complex financial issues, occasional mob stuff, and some heroic figures that dramatically impacted New York.
- God on the Starting Line: The Triumph of a Catholic School Running Team and Its Jewish Coach: This was recommended to me as a running book, not a religious book. There was a little too much religion in it for my tastes in the first half, but this fell by the wayside after the author made his point and really got into the running story. It’s an exciting one and fits in the “inspiration running book category”, especially if you are catholic or jewish.
I’m back in Boulder where the temperature is lower than my age and the wind is higher than my age.