I have this theory that, at one time or another, in one place or another, a book has been written on every conceivable subject, as well as some subjects that are frankly inconceivable. Not necessarily a good book, but a book nonetheless.
"Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States," newly reissued by the New York Review of Books, serves as confirmation of my idea. Originally published in 1945, George Stewart's book delineates the process by which cities and towns have been named, more or less by geographic area, more or less through an organizing system that takes the most bizarre names first.
It's a delightful book for casual reading, written with a relaxed air by Stewart, who was a professor at Berkeley for 40 years. Connoisseurs of miscellaneous and obscure knowledge will fall upon it avidly.
In the Pipeline...
Ballantine will publish "Jane Bites Back," a novel whose premise is that Jane Austen is stalking around the 21st century as one very angry vampire, furious that she's amassed 116 rejections for a novel she wrote just before she was turned into one of the undead, while at the same time, everybody and their brother is making money off her name and novels... The New Press will publish a series of books on contemporary religion. First titles out of the chute are "Whose Church?: A Concise Guide to Progressive Catholicism" by Daniel Maguire, and "Whose Torah?: A Concise Guide to Progressive Judaism."
Mike Browning's Word of the Week...
hippodame: someone who trains horses.
Scott Eyman writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: seyman AT pbpost.com