As reported below, I am blogging tonight from a slow dial-up connection in a hotel room in Crescent City, California, along the rugged and beautiful northernmost coast of the state, where the redwood forests slope to the sea. It was a fine clear day to be flying here in a modest turboprop. It is also, I'm pleased to say, some 30 degrees cooler here than back in Los Angeles.

Be that as it may, the reason for this post is to recommend appropriate reading matter. Although set in a somewhat more remote stretch of the coast than Crescent City occupies, the book that seems most appropriate is nonetheless Thomas Pynchon's Vineland. Funny and paranoid in the usual Pynchon proportions, and surprisingly linear into the bargain. It's our Recommendation of the Moment, for the moment.