Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Strolling Down to the Bookstore on a Saturday Afternoon
I seem to have gotten into the habit of visiting one of the large local bookstores downtown after finishing teaching my class in the mornings at the U. of T. Last week I walked down to the large Chapters by John St. First I checked to see if there was any movie I wanted to see at the Paramount next door, and then finding nothing that peeked my interest I went to browse in the bookstore. I looked there fruitlessly for my own book, but didn’t find it, and consoled myself with a Mocha Frappacino and the latest copy of History Today in its Starbucks.

Today I decided to head to the Chapters store at Bay and Bloor, and had a good long browse. Came away satisfied with two real finds I had found in the remaindered section: The Moon and Venus, both by famous British astronomer Patrick Moore. The book on the Moon had plenty of maps that I knew would be good for future telescope sessions, and a whole book on the subject of the planet Venus was too tempting to pass up. Started reading the Moon title over lunch in a local food court, and soon found myself enjoying the inimitable and idiosyncratic prose of Moore, describing the history of observations of our satellite, his battles with the IAU over what constituted east and west (telescopes invert the image of the moon), and his rich descriptions of his favourite places on the moon. Lots of fun.

I passed up a similar book on Mars that he had also authored, but I suspect I’ll be back for it after I’ve gone through the other two first.