About 2 months ago, I was reading one of my favorite blogs, BLDGBLOG, written by Geoff Manaugh. If you have any interest in architecture, or just interest in good writing, read BLDGBLOG! Anyways, he mentioned a lecture he was giving along with a few other people. One of those people was Lawrence Weschler, a longtime writer for the New Yorker as well as an extensively published author.
Mr. Manaugh (whose book's late summer release I'm anxiously awaiting) suggested reading the above book, 'Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder'.
Originally published as an essay in the New Yorker, the book explores the often unbelievable exhibits at the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, along with exploring the mind of it's curator, Mr. Wilson.
Riding the subway every morning gives me plenty of time to read, so I picked it up.
Fantastic book...so good actually, that the minute I finished reading it I went straight down to Union Square and bought another Weschler book, 'Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences'.
Equally as enjoyable to read as Mr. Wilson's, the book explores the often overlooked relationships between historical events, spanning the worlds of art, society, politics, medicine, religion, and more. Very, very interesting reading, and expertly edited to ensure the reader establishes a visual connection to Mr. Weschler's words. So with 10 pages left to read in this book, I bought another one:
'A Wanderer in the Perfect City'
18 pages in and I'm completely absorbed already. His writing style is such that paints every single subject to seem so interesting and unique, and makes you want to sit down and have a conversation with all of them.
This book is a collection of eight nonfiction essays, centrally themed around individuals who were just going about their daily lives, when all of a sudden they "caught on fire", as if their purpose in life was suddenly revealed to them, and follows their subsequent journeys.
My next book will be 'Boggs, A Comedy of Values', surprise it's another Weschler!
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