Monday

Ah, the small pleasures. Better yet, the free pleasures. Especially the free pleasures that help defeat a shortcoming.

Here's the situation: I'm reading an article or a book that makes reference to a book that sounds really good. For the past ten years, I've often just ordered it. The annual expenditure on these impulse buys was sizable, and it increased once I got the iPad (order now, start reading in 90 seconds--that's the kind of psychological pressure only the strongest nerd can withstand). I didn't mind the impulse nerd purchases that were part of my "core" libraries (libertarian library, Thomistic library, religious studies library, GK Chesterton library), but I frequently bought things off the beaten Scheske Library path, and frequently, the book would end up boring me and I'd barely penetrate it.

My wife suggested that I try the public library, but it was a waste of time. It simply doesn't carry most of the books I read (though it has a good supply of gardening books, which has helped me a lot). Then on Tuesday, I was sitting in the family room with the kids, surfing around on my iPad. I decided to see whether my local library offered inter-library loans.

Not only do they offer it, but users can order online. It was sweet. There were four books on my Amazon Wish List, books that I would've probably ordered sooner or later, and I found all four of them through inter-library loan.

Better yet, two of them arrived by Friday, so I read from them during the weekend. Of the two, I'm happy I didn't buy one of them. On the Trail to Wittgenstein's Hut: The Historical Background of the Tractatus Logico-Philosphicus. I was hoping to find insight about the book and biography about the odd Jewish fellow who was raised a marginal Christian, the man who was friends with the atheist Bertrand Russell yet admired by the Catholic Elizabeth Anscombe. The book doesn't offer much insight into any of these things (except the Russell connection). Instead, it offers historical background about the book (shocker, shocker, given the title). The book isn't bad. It's just not what I thought it'd be.

The other book, however, is great: 100 Minds That Made the Market. I'm not sure I need to buy it, but I might. It's packed with historical facts and references. If you're interested in the history of American finance since 1800, this book provides a great overview, broken down into scores of easy-to-digest biographical sketches.