I enjoy reading book reviews. Besides helping me keep up with new books, they teach the craft of writing.

A recent review by Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post offers a few lessons. The author of the book tries to connect three men around a bombing case; the reviewer asserts that one of the men had absolutely nothing to do with it. So why try to tie the three men together? Yardley writes:

Blum is hell-bent on achieving Significance. It’s not enough that the Los Angeles story is interesting on its own merits; he has to tart it up by connecting it to the rise of the movies, which “had become integrated into American life, a natural part of the national consciousness.” He’s after Relevance, too, which is why he writes, of the “terror campaign” of bombings in 1910.

There’s a principle in that: Don’t manufacture significance. An obvious point, to be sure, but it’s helpful to remember that someone will always call you on the carpet if you violate it.

The whole review is worth reading.

Something curious is happening with gas prices in my part of town.

Before the recent hurricane, gas prices had gone down to $3.26/gal. The hurricane pushed prices up to about $4.10/gal, and many stations were without gas for several weeks. Every station now has gas, and prices have dropped all week, from $3.89 on Monday to $3.19 last night.

One station, though, has been selling gas at cut rates for over a week. When gas was at $4.10, they were selling for $3.56; when gas was at $3.59, they were selling at $2.92. Of course, the cars have been lined up by the dozens, and we’ve had to wait five to fifteen minutes in traffic every day going home.

I’m not sure why the store is offering gas at prices so far below the going rate. They certainly are getting a lot of customers, but I doubt that they are that profitable. The station has run out of gas several times this week; it was out this morning. Perhaps they’re trying to get back customers that they lost during the two weeks they were out of gas, or perhaps they’re trying to put neighboring gas stations out of business.

Any ideas?

On a recent Saturday, we went apple picking with the Garlands.