Going Away to Think” presents an ongoing struggle between enjoyment and activism, between savoring and saving. If saving/savoring are goals, like a mountain peak, understanding place is the trailhead. Appreciation and activism both start with an understanding of place. As an ecocritic, “place” is perhaps the most important topic in professor Scott Slovic’s work.

“So… I haven’t read through the whole thing yet,” I said with a grin. That didn’t surprise Glotfelty who, after 12 years of research and work, has finished editing “Literary Nevada: Writings from the Silver State.” This massive, comprehensive work was published in September and features a diversity of authors from Sarah Winnemucca to Hunter S. Thompson.

Beneath the candidates’ views on economics, foreign policy, health care and other things are the candidates themselves and how they run their campaigns. Financial numbers have been staggering this year. Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain have broken records for fundraising this year with $639 million and $360 million going into their respective campaigns.

According to Common Cause, a group dedicated to campaign reform, the average winning campaign for a seat in the House of Representatives raises about $1.3 million. “Ms. Cahill for Congress” is the story of Reno teacher Tierney Cahill’s race for Congress in 2000 with a campaign committee of sixth graders and $7,000.

Simon Armitage’s 12th book of poetry, “Tyrannosaurus Rex versus The Corduroy Kid,” is the work of a great imagination sprawling to the limits of traditional poetics and curling up in the culture and history of England.

In celebration of Banned Books Week, I took a trip down to the public library last Thursday with my girlfriend Aschley in the hopes of digging up a controversial and relevant book to review.

The streets of Reno are haunted with the down-and-out. Weekend nights are wild with drunks falling through crosswalks while muttering to themselves. Critics gape at the public display and curse the cigarette smoke that lingers in their hair long after the casinos of last night pass into history. If these alcoholic-veined men or the cocktail waitresses that serve them ever search for an author, they will find Willy Vlautin.