February 4, 2006
NEW YEAR’S REVOLUTION

Don’t tell me—your new year’s resolution is to read more. No? Well than it has to be to support your local independent bookstore. Really? Well, what is it then? To plant a vegetable garden, you say? Perfect! But first you should learn how to make a sustainable living space (a.k.a. healthy soil) for your future crop. I suggest reading Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets, an excellent book about the least appreciated (but most tasty) of all harvests—mushrooms. Incorporating symbiotic fungi into your garden is one of the best ways to ensure healthy, beautiful, delicious vegetables. OK, so maybe you live in the city and the only “garden” to which you have claim is the moldy cheese in your refrigerator or the pot plants in your closet. In addition to fungal-farming methods, Stamets also educates his readers about the incalculable ecological benefits mushrooms provide to forests and how these same feared and hated fungi can lead the way to an ecologically sound human existence. At his research farm in Oregon, Stamets has created (among other miracles) non-toxic, non-chemical pesticides, methods of cleaning bacteria and waste from farm runoff, and, using oyster mushrooms, a way of removing hydrocarbons from soil. A thoroughly fascinating book for mycologists and fungo-phobes alike.

Maybe your resolution is to get over your fear of being seen in public with a comic book. Don’t worry! Comics have become an acceptable medium for people of all shapes, sizes and tastes. If you’re new to the idea that comics can be intelligent and beautiful, check out Chris Ware’s new Acme Novelty Library #16—Rusty Brown. Printed and bound with the attention to detail that Ware infuses into all his work, Rusty Brown is limited to just a few thousand copies. After that, you’ll have to wait at least a couple of years until the entire storyline is collected to get one. Another recent favorite of mine is Likewise by Ariel Schrag, a comic chronicling Ariel’s difficulties from being a queer high-school student. The first three issues are out already with the fourth coming shortly. If you want to escape the horrors of the headlines and get involved with something deep, dive into Neil Gaiman’s Sandman universe. Literate and complex, Gaiman takes eleven volumes to tell the story of the Endless. Even after reading all of them several times, I still notice new details every time, the perfect gift any author can give a nerdy, meticulous reader like myself.

But no, your resolution is to connect more with your teenager, that person you used to know who’s now an amoebic whirlwind of frustrated hormones and changing tastes. Try reading a book together! It’ll give you something to talk about besides the fact that the trash hasn’t been taken out yet. I suggest Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy: The Golden Compass,The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. Infinitely more satisfying than Harry Potter (which are great reads but more-or-less insubstantial candy), Pullman’s fiction is infused with the kind of grit and anti-totalitarian philosophies that make you wonder how in the world it gets categorized as “children’s fiction.”

Thanks for reading (this and in general) and happy BELATED New Year.

posted by Nick

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