Keeping our wits about us

Terry Pratchett, author of the renowned Discworld series, lives with a diagnosis of a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Pratchett recently donated half a million UK pounds ($1 million US) to the Alzheimer's Research Trust in the UK, and this sparked a Match it for Pratchett campaign. In the US, donations (by phone, online, or by check) can be made to the Alzheimer's Association.

Imagine what could happen if each of us who have been delighted and inspired by his work gave one hour's worth of pay to this cause. I invite readers of this blog to join me in donating that amount in honor of Terry and to combat this as-yet incurable disease.

(Did I hear a voice say "THEY ARE TRYING TO SLOW THINGS DOWN AGAIN. I CAN'T BLAME THEM."?)

(Thank you to Whump for alerting me to the campaign.)

Reading and writing

After writing non-fiction all day, I like to read fiction at night.

Currently my husband is reading Terry Pratchett's latest, Making Money, out loud to me while I cook dinner. About a thief who finds himself in charge of a banking system, it's so good that sometimes I put dinner on the table and we just keep reading until the food cold! If you haven't read anything by Pratchett, the bestselling writer (alongside J.K. Rowling) in England for the past decade, I'd suggest you start with Jingo.

While Pratchett writes speculative fiction that sounds suspiciously like literature, Michael Chabon writes literature that sounds suspiciously like speculative fiction. I just finished Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union about a police detective in Sitka, Alaska (which in the book is a fictitious Jewish community created after the 1948 collapse of the state of Israel). This delightful book may well be the best-written novel of the decade.