Oftentimes I have a couple of books going at the same time. I'm currently working on "I Wonder as I Wander," a biography of the idiosyncratic singer of folk songs, John Jacob Niles, by Ron Pen. I'm also reading "The Gardens of Democracy" by Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer, an analysis of the role of government in a dynamic society.

Waiting on my bookshelves is "Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World," by John Szwed.

A friend loaned me a DVD of Benjamin Bagby's recitation—like an ancient skald, in Olde English, along with an Anglo-Saxon lyre-harp—of "Beowulf." I found it absolutely enthralling, got myself a copy of the DVD, and am soon to pull my copy of "Beowulf" (transliterated into modern English) off my bookshelves and read it again.

Don Firth

P. S. By the way, Silas, if you haven't read Ray Bradbury's "Farenheit 451," you really should. Science fiction, yes. But it's a Classic. And it is, unfortunately, quite germane to such things as certain groups wanting to expunge certain books from the libraries, and the current rumblings about factions agitating to pass laws allowing them to curtail or censor the internet.