50 Books in '05: Not Even Wrong- Adventures in Autism

Author Paul Collins is a historian with an autistic son- and this book shows both the keen eye of one who researches antiquated documents and the warm heart of a concerned parent. I'd recommend this book highly to anyone with an interest in unusual historical accounts (this goes into a great deal on Peter the wild Boy, a feral child found in Germany in the 18th century who became a possession of King George I) or an interest in autism- a very unusual and misunderstood condition.

Every year or so I get on a reading kick, and when I do, I try to alternate between non-fiction and fiction works. My 50 books in '05 attempt is no exception. After finishing Not Even Wrong, I reached first for Nelson Algren's The Man With The Golden Arm. Seeing how big it was, how small the print was and realizing I was already behind my almost one book a week pace I'll need to keep up to reach my goal, I reached instead for the much shorter Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. Hey, it's not War And Peace but it's not Hop On Pop either- I say it counts. Now if I always went for the 205 page trade paperbacks, well, yeah, that would be taking the easy way out...