Book 2

I'm embarrassed to say I've just finished my second book of 2008. But I vow to make progress more quickly in the second, third and fourth quarters of the year.

Just a few days ago, I wrapped up "La Place de la Concorde Suisse" by John McPhee -- a Pulitzer winner, a total badass and a favorite of mine. "La Place" is an account of the Swiss Army and it's one of the most fascinating books I've read in a long while.

McPhee takes subjects people know very little about -- designing nuclear weapons, geology of the Great Basin -- and opens them up in an accessible and incredibly thorough way. My most common reaction to facts I read in a McPhee book is, "Are you serious!?"

In "The Curve of Binding Energy," the first McPhee book I read, he described a scene in which bomb designer Ted Taylor used a concave mirror pointed at a nuclear blast to light a cigarette. I'm not making that up. And neither did McPhee. But he's so good at feretting out stories like that, that it's sometimes hard to believe he's a journalist and not a novelist.

"La Place" takes a wide-angle view of the Swiss Army, from weaponry and training to the experiences of soldiers in the field. And in talking to so many Swiss soldiers and officers of so many varied ranks and backgrounds, he uncovered a treasure trove of hilarious, poignant and disconcerting anecdotes.

For example: Did you know that if you drive across a mountain bridge in Switzerland, chances are the bridge is wired to explode at a moment's notice or there are massive hidden guns pointed toward it at all times. All swiss soldiers -- mandatory, universal service for men age 18 to 48 (or something like that) -- have a rifle and live ammunition either in their house or their car. If you drive on a Swiss road that sits between a cliff and a lake, chances are there are explosives in the cliff, ready to blow up and cut off the road at any time.

Who knew the Swiss were so gung-ho? Anyway, it's an interesting read and, while relatively short, is incredibly dense in terms of the characters introduced and the ridiculous information presented.

Other books in progress: "Johnny One-Eye" by Jerome Charyn; "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens; and "Annals of the Former World," by McPhee. I also have a half-read copy of "Moby Dick" floating around somewhere.