Lunch Loop – Kent Fackenthall

The challenge of a good Lunch Loop photo is a daunting one. The very nature of the Lunch Loop (a loop on your bike from the office at lunch) constrains things as you’re limited to a certain radius by time and distance. If you Loop regularly enough, you soon exhaust all the obvious and usual points of interest – graffiti spots, scenic overlooks, etc. Given that you’ll always be shooting relatively the same subject one of several bikes or just A bike sets the bar even higher. You have to start looking deeper into the environment to find interesting stuff. Backgrounds, textures, colors. A highly entertaining enterprise and a great way to see your local ‘hood in a whole new light. In the cracks and crevices there’s treasure to be found.

Today’s Lunch Loop was a Library Run to return this book, The Overstory by Richard Powers. To be honest, I didn’t want to, I wanted to read it again. That doesn’t happen often. I wonder sometimes if one wants to re-read a book if it makes more sense to do it immediately or wait, and discover it again, only with a hint of familiarity, at a later time. My reading queue is currently backed up so this one will have to wait.

I can’t remember the last time a book affected me such as this one – fiction or otherwise. Powers is a master of the written word and the subject matter is of monumental weight, yet presented in a way not to be overbearing on the story. After finishing it I’m left feeling alternately exhilarated and helpless, still trying to process it all. I think the fact that this book and the discussion around it isn’t a bigger deal points to the fact that we’re still not ‘getting it’ as a species.

If this is on your to-read list, I suggest you bump it up several notches. If it wasn’t even on your radar, it should be – read it. If you’re saying, “meh, I don’t read so much anymore and the kinds of books I like to read aren’t really-“ stop. You probably need to read it the most.