Walking the streets of Barcelona—oops didn’t I mention I am on vacation?—I run into a bookstore near las Ramblas. Meandering around the narrow stacks, I found the newly released Catalan translation of Amélie Nothomb’s “Jornal d’Hirondelle” (Diary de l’oreneta/Diary of the swallow). The first book I read from her was “Méthaphysique des tubes”, and she got me at the first line. I need to speed up with Ulam’s autobiography—extremely addictive—so I can move on to this one.