Thurday night I finished Paco Underhill's Why We Buy. It's less a sociology book on the role of consumerism in society, than a series of ideas for stores on how to make people spend more money. Some of the tricks he suggests are fascinating though, and I'll have to keep an eye out for some of them when I'm out shopping. Somewhat interesting, but I wouldn't really recommend it unless you're trying to sell thing.

Friday on the way to Denver I finished two books. Mark Salzman's Lying Awake and Martin Amis' Time's Arrow. I didn't like Lying Awake as well as the other books of his I've read. It was well-written, but the inner life of a nun just isn't something I can relate to very well. Time's Arrow probably could have been shorter, but was an interesting away to approach the Holocaust. The books follows a life backwards through time.

Last night I finished off Robert Shea's The Saracen: Land of the Infidel. I quite enjoyed reading it, much like his Shike series. Like the Shike books, this is the first volume of a two volume set, so I'll have to read the second half soon. The Saracen is set in 13th century Italy and is the tale of an Islamic warrior undercover in the court of Pope Urban (to simplify greatly).
posted by Kristin Buxton at 3:02 PM