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Bookish: OUT & ABOUT (8#) -

# Pop Culture is often the barometer of a vibrant society. After being isolated and rather remote for decades, Afghanistan suddenly has to cope with TV, music, and annoying people who poke fun at authority figures. Paul Wiseman writes about what's going on there lately.

Sanjar is an Afghani Blogger, but he blogs on a rather sporadic basis, and his Sanjar Blog may suffer from technical problems. It seems he is now part of a new group venture called Afghan PenLog which is worth checking out.

# The enterprising and energetic TV reporter
Richard Engel has produced War Journal:
My Five Years in Iraq, Bob Minzesheimer writes.

# Road Trips: The Golden Age of American Family
Vacations from 1945 through the mid-Seventies.
Jonathan Eig reviews Are We There Yet?

# Begley the Bookie recommends a Beach Read: Dan Rattiner's In the Hamptons, a "relaxed and cheerful memoir" by the editor and publisher of a free weekly out there since 1960.

# Why He Writes: Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, in a brief but illuminating glimpse of his motivation and approach.

# While I was out sick, the Hay
Literary Festival rolled out for this summer.

"We don't have a festival culture of this sort in the U.S."

John Freeman dives into the book gathering
at that "twee little place on the Welsh border."

And, at the end of his piece, a link to more Hay.

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