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Such an airplane book… The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer… if it hadn’t been sitting in a pile, I wouldn’t have remembered reading it. And it took the jacket blurb to clue me in to the story again. And that’s maybe three weeks after reading the book. Enough said.

In past years, I’ve watched several days of the Tour de France in the early morning, or catching the repeat on OLN (now Versus) in the evenings. Some of my fonder moments a few years ago were getting up early with the boy and teaching him who Lance Armstrong was, as we ate breakfast in front of the Alps or Pyrenees. Like most Americans, some of my interest diminished when Lance retired, and Landis’s breakthrough rise and fall last year was maddening. I can’t help but join those who wonder about Lance, too. When everyone from Basso to Ullrich and beyond was caught or implicitly acknowledged “mistakes” in the last few years, and the Tour finds itself with a much diminished field each year… how could it have been so different during Lance’s seven years?

Still, I watched a few hours here and there, mostly last week. Liggett and Sherwin are marvelous commentators. Makes me want to go out and ride up (shorter, less steep) hills. Bike racing is much better on TV. And so much worse in person, unfortunately, if you actually want to see anything.

Then Rasmussen, the surprise leader, gets tossed. Argh. I’m still going to watch part of the final time trial tomorrow. Yet it feels like watching Barry Bonds chase the home run record. No matter how much you’d like to get caught up in the moment, how can you commit the psychic energy of fandom to any of these athletes?

Simon Winchester published A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 less than a year ago, in October 2006. Since April 18, 1906 was the earthquake of the title, he just made the centennial — hardly a coincidence.

After my other recent earthquake book, I’m now fully aware of the dangers of my hometown. So be it. The first half of this book was education and explanation for those who need an introduction to plate tectonics. Not me. So I was annoyed for a while, and then amused by Winchester’s efforts to stretch this momentous incident into a hinge for the new American century. Hmmmm.

Certainly, the transfer of the economic center of California from Northern California to Los Angeles and its environs was made possible by the quake (among other factors). But Winchester’s tale loses momentum after he describes the quake and the first few days. From the title, fair enough — but he hinted at broader goals, and then lost them in the fire which consumed the city and his story. For a history of the quake itself and the reconstruction, I’ll have to look elsewhere.

I read Winchester’s The Professor and the Madman a few years ago. That quirky double biography with its deep love of words enchanted me. A Crack in the Edge of the World educated me a bit, engaged me at times, but never grabbed me.

I returned Mad Dogs by James O’Grady to the library a few weeks ago. I liked the flashbacks in this thriller, which made the reading slightly more than just brain candy. The characters are more memorable than the ending, at least these few weeks later. I’ve heard of Six Days of the Condor, but never read the book nor seen the movie. Funny to read that six days was too long for a movie, so they shortened it to Three Days of the Condor. I know you have to abbreviate a novel into a movie, but that’s…blunt.

Yesterday’s 4.2 magnitude earthquake was reported in today’s Chronicle this way: Quake rattles East Bay. The sub-hed? Magnitude 4.2 temblor causes little damage but may be foreshock

Since every earthquake is seen as a possible precursor to the “big one,” the foreshock reference feels like a bit of dramatic license. But I did read A Dangerous Place: California’s Unsettling Fate by Marc Reisner a few weeks ago. In this short, posthumously published book, Reisner quickly scans the history of the growth of California cities, especially San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area.

Not surprisingly for the author of the justly famous Cadillac Desert (subtitled “The American West and Its Disappearing Water”), Reisner harps on the fragility of the water supplies of both Northern and Southern California. The aquaducts were not news to me. The novel danger to me was the levees in the Central Valley.

If the levees fail, at least two things happen.

First, of course, many people and even more farms are flooded, as the Delta’s salt water pushes up into the now-settled farmland several feet below the top of the levees.

Second, the water supply to Southern California is disrupted mightily, since the pipeline bringing water from Northern California to Souther California are shut off if the intakes are now brackish.

Technology exists in other places, but the farmland and food distribution infrastructure of the Central Valley has few parallels around the world. California’s economy — and therefore the United States economy — would suffer mightily.

After this introduction to all the possible dangers, Reisner creates a “what if” scenario in the last half of the book, “documenting” what happens when (not if) a magnitude 7 quake hits. This is scary, in a matter-of-fact way, though not as interesting as the first half of the book.

If you’re going to read Reisner, start with Cadillac Desert instead. But for a quick, fact-based scare about the earthquake risk we all ignore to live here, read A Dangerous Place.

The book was published in 2003, but was written by Reisner before his death in 2000, so he put the date of 2005 out there for his scenario. Reading the alternate (future?) history two years after the fact doesn’t change anything: the risk remains, and it always will.

However, it is possible that the replacement of the eastern span of the Bay Bridge might be done before a big quake hits… but it’s telling that Reisner in 2000 envisioned the bridge being replaced by 2007, not in time for his imagined 2005 quake.

The currest estimate? 2013. (source)

I woke up to an earthquake this morning.

My eyes didn’t snap open, but I woke up, clock says 4:43am, and things kept shaking for maybe 10 seconds more. I could hear things shaking, but nothing fell or was out of order when I got out of bed. I tried to go back to sleep, but given two of the last three books I’ve read (but not yet blogged) are about earthquakes…not so much.

Intellectually, I know we’re living in denial about the potential impact of an earthquake, bracing and bolting notwithstanding. But reading these books breaks through the background clutter. The two books: A Dangerous Place by Marc Reisner (of Cadillac Desert fame) and A Crack on the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester. I like living here, despite the red zone. I am a bit more conscious of this choice these last few weeks. Especially this morning.

The USGS has details about this 4.2 magnitude event, which officially took place in Oakland at 4:42am. I reported my experience, which you’re invited to do, and here’s the aggregated map and report of observers.

The inbox is full of interesting links. If I post them some of them here, maybe I don’t have to stay up looking at all of them.

Since I enjoyed Knocked Up so much, I read the New Yorker review after the fact.

I don’t read Valleywag unless someone points me to a specific story. Wondering if I should apply the same policy to Uncov? But Uncov looks funnier.

The Full text of an Andrew Keen – David Weinberger debate is available free on WSJ.com, and a good read. I’ve met David once, and read much of his writing, although not yet his new book. Delaminate the bastards is also sitting in the inbox.

I’ll never read Anti-Grain Geometry – Texts Rasterization Exposures that carefully, but I admire people who can dive into and explain details at this microscopic level. Something is right in a world where people care about making the world easier to see (on screen).

Article about Tour de France equipment that doesn’t match the named sponsors… so much for discretion. Thanks, Ken.

Enough for now.

This weekend, I read Happy Blogiversary, the Wall Street Journal’s review of 10 years of blogging. I found it first online, pointed to by Scott Karp because Dick Costolo cited Publishing 2.0 as one of his favorites.

Skimming it over the weekend, via satellite broadband, the video vignettes embedded in the piece wouldn’t play…the player told me I was a second-class citizen (not enough bandwidth). Oh well. Couldn’t watch Dennis Yang of TechDirt, either, until this morning on DSL. Even then, I had to wait for the entire video to stream in before it would play more than the 3 second WSJ intro. (Brightcove, you learned a lot from YouTube in usability terms… finish the job?)

Last night, I caught up with the print edition. Dick’s contribution was accompanied by a photograph there, too (not just online, which sometimes happens).

I have to ask… you made the Journal, but you got a photograph? Where’s the dot portrait?

Seriously, being thrown into the mix with Tom Wolfe, Christopher Cox, Newt Gingrich (!?), and Mia Farrow as a cultural commentator… not bad. But the dot portrait awaits.

From those to whom much is given, much is expected.

Bill Gates quotes his mother’s expression in his 2007 Commencement Address at Harvard.

It’s not a new sentiment, but it never hurts to be reminded. Makes me consider my goals in a broader context.

Thanks, Anil — we’ve barely met, but I appreciate the sparks you share.

The wife called attention to the NPR story “Study: Men Talk Just as Much as Women.” Hmmm… we’re not quite the mean here. 😉