A Walk Out of the World, by Ruth Nichols

This obscure 1969 children’s fantasy is sometimes mentioned as a minor classic, or at least fondly recalled. I suspect that this has to do with the paucity of kid’s fantasy at the time, and also because it probably reads better when you’re ten.

Quest fantasies aren’t known for brilliant plotting, but this one has an unusually random plot, designed to get the characters from one pleasant location to another. The characters have virtually no characteristics, and rarely feel any emotions. I suspect that the true appeal of this, other than what I mentioned before, is that when you’re ten, descriptions of multicolored stars, silver eyes, and velvet dresses have enormous appeal.

Judith and her brother Tobit walk out of our world and into a standard but pretty and lyrically described fantasy world, with dwarves and river people and a Dark Lord. They are told that they are the long-lost descendants of the rightful king. Judith announces that she, Tobit, and the young prince Thorn will walk up to the Dark Lord. And do something. They have no idea what. Seriously.

They set off, but are stared at by an evil gopher, a minion of the Dark Lord.

( In which there is a rather remarkable anticlimax )

I probably would have liked this more if I’d read it when I was ten.

Walk Out Of The World

The Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande

Surgeon and science writer Atul Gawande’s previous books, Complications (on the role of intuition, the unknown, and other hard to quantify things in the practice of medicine) and Better (on the pursuit of excellence and why we often don’t reach it, focused on by not exclusive to medicine), are two of my favorite nonfiction books. I’ve read them both several times over and highly recommend them. Better in particular has wide-reaching implications and requires no independent interest in medicine.

The Checklist Manifesto, about why checklists are a good idea which can be used in many endeavors, makes an extremely convincing and well-documented case in favor of checklists. But unlike his previous books, which used specific cases to make larger points, this really is a book about checklists.

It would have been of far more general interest if it had been a book about the tension between set routines and individualism, and used checklists as an example of that. Instead, it’s the other way around. By the end of the book I had read the word checklist so often that it reminded me of my experience reading the book about Toni Bentley's ass.

Worth checking out from the library, but not something you’re likely to want to re-read.

Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science

Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right