SFist Reads

We've taken to leaving the house -- sometimes for hours at a time -- without a jacket, which can only mean one thing: it's Summer Book Club time. Dude, look at the stipulations: "Small incentive prizes will be awarded to enrolled children who have read for two, four and six hours during the eight weeks of Summer Reading." When we were a kid, we read six hours a day (our "honey, don't you want to go outside?" parents will attest to this). We would clean up at ther SFPL's club! Oh, to be under 13 again.

SFist Derrick asks "Why start one new book when you can start two?" He hasn't quite figured out how that will work, but he's cracked open William Zinsser's On Writing Well and Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma. The latter, of course, is the much-talked-about investigation into the routes that food takes as it comes to the table. It's sparked a Web-based debate between Pollan and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, who feels that the book comes down too hard on the industrial organic model that Whole Foods helped build. On Writing Well is one of the classic books for nonfiction writers who want to improve their craft, and comes highly recommended by pretty much everybody whose opinion Derrick cares about.