Nik Gomez

USC Libraries blow me away

So I’m sitting in AFA (Architecture & Fine Arts Library) doing some research for the art history paper that is due next Monday, and I need to get a book. So I open my laptop and head to HOMER (the library catalogue database) to see if we have it. First try: score. USC just happens to have a copy of Modern Art and Modernism: A Critical Anthology by Francis Frascina and Charles Harrison from 1982. Lucky me, I can continue my quest to link Robert Morris’ “Notes on Sculpture Pt. 1″ from Artforum to the two pieces of art I have yet to select. That the book was in the library was a pretty sweet coincidence that winds up happening about four more times until I’m fully confident that – here at USC – every book in the history of the universe is/was/will be located in one of our libraries. I say “was” because books get stolen. It always sucks when you do a search it is comes back as being due two years ago… But I stand firm, somewhere in the vast (and horribly creepy) bookstacks of USC lies the meaning of life.

The World Without Us – Alan Weisman

Just a quick review here. This book takes on a very intriguing premise: What happens if the entire human race ups and disappears?

Really, its interesting… the premise, that is. After reading it, I have discovered that it was originally an academic paper, and it shows. Of course, the authors have probably dumbed down some of the technical aspects and made some of the content more accessible. The main problem that I (and the other people who I have talked to) have with the way that the book plays out is that it answers the question and then way more than the question.

The book definitely makes some points on the topics of global warming and the effects that we have on the environment. The bibliography at the end of the book gives the book a level of credibility that I feel other works of this nature need to have (I’m speaking to you, Inconvenient Truth).

If you want to read a book that is highly scientific in nature, this is probably a great bet for you. I just couldn’t keep up with the overload of small anecdotes that the book stems off of.