The Convenience of the Internet

   I’m still astonished about what the internet can do, perhaps because I so rely on it, living as I do in Mexico, outside my linguistic orbit. Herewith an example from last Sunday.
   I was reading the New York Times, on my trusty MacBook Pro, a daily morning ritual and I made sure to check out the Sunday Book Review. Sure enough, there was a review of a book that might well be of considerable interest to me: a new biography, by Wendy Lesser, of the architect, Louis Kahn, an architect I greatly admire. I’ve had a good look at several of his buildings and had seen his son’s  excellent documentary, My Architect. Still, I only knew some basic facts about his life. As an admirer, I had even written an op ed about him; but the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette did not publish it, perhaps understandably, because it was not a propos a Kahn event, such as an anniversary of some kind. 
The Times review of the Wendy Lesser biography sounded interesting, so I thought I wanted to read it.

   Ordering the book to get to my Mexico City abode is cumbersome and, giving the mail service, unsure. But would a book just published already be available on Kindle? I checked (the internet again) and, behold, it was. So, with the Wi-Fi on, I did all the necessary clicking, and conjured the Kahn biography into my Mexico City abode.

   When it got here—in a couple of minutes—I was in the middle of a biography about Debussy. But I took the time out from to look at the new arrival. Promising. I will turn to Louis Kahn full time as soon as I am done with the composer of Pélleas et Mélisande.