50 Things I Love About You

It's been a bad year of reading for me. Not because I read bad books -- quite the contrary actually -- but because I didn't read enough of them. My total for the year, including a library fueled blitz last month, was twenty books. That's less than two a month. Pathetic.

For a guy with a lot of time on his hands, I fell completely off the reading wagon this year. Well no more. Lilly and I are starting up fiftyfifty.me, a books and movies challenge. Basically we're going to read fifty books and watch fifty movies in 2012. That sounds like a lot maybe. I mean, who has time for fifty of anything anymore?

Actually, we believe everyone does! And if you don't have the time, what are you doing? Watching television? Going outside? Hanging out with friends? Overrated.

I marvel at other reading challenges where people crank out over 100+ books a year. "How is anyone reading that much?!" I think to myself. Personally I'll have no problem hitting the movies watched mark, but fifty books a year could take some effort. But life's about setting goals (so I hear) so I'm gonna start with Dan Simmons' Hyperion on January 1st and not look back till I'm across the finish line.

We'll be blogging fun things on the fiftyfifty.me site, hoping you join up, and rocking out to the New Kids On The Block: Christmas Special all the way through! "50 books. 50 movies. 1 you."

Just Tell Me the Song and I'll Sing It

Currently pushing: Stephen Elliot's "An Oral History of Myself" series. I've been a loyal reader of Elliot's Daily Rumpus emails for about a year now and he's like a uni-directional BFF. I know more about his thoughts and life than I do about most of my friends, which is weird but also fascinating.

I recently found out about his oral history series and have been going through them all. The project is this: "In 2005 I [Elliot] began interviewing people I grew up with and transcribing, then editing, the interviews, creating a kind of memoir but in other people's words." Oral histories are all the rage now. Like the one for Friday Night Lights, the mammoth ESPN book, the MTV book. I think everyone should create an oral history.

The Daily Rumpus is consistently one of my favorite reads but it's not available via blog or anything, as far as I know. Thus I recommend subscribing to the email list immediately.

I went to the library today, for the first time in a long time. I had sort of forgotten about the actual purpose of a library. The last few times I've been in libraries it's been for readings, panels, workshops, blow out sales, celebrations, bathroom pit stops. The last time I checked something out was 2007. As a friend deadpanned to me when I told her how cool it was that I could use my Kindle to borrow books for free: "So it's like a library." Riiiight, good point. Now that I know where I'll be for more than three weeks -- San Diego until 2012 -- I decided it would be best to start hitting up the local branch again.

At the beginning of this year I lamented how much I haven't been reading. Well, eleven months later and I still haven't been reading. I do have a beautiful spreadsheet of things acquired but only nine titles are marked "finished." That's totally pathetic. I'm not exactly cruising through Gravity's Rainbow here either. It only took a few hours each to polish off the stuff I have read. The problem is so much of my reading intake is now long form articles and stuff online that my diet is totally disproportionate. My Kindle was supposed to change this but I've finished a grand total of one book on it so far.

Anyway, long whining short, I'm going to breeze through a book a day this week and try to get my rhythm back. Plus I want to win a reading medal. They still give those out right? Or maybe that's so passé now. I mean, this library in Canada is having a contest to award a trip to WrestleMania for teens who read at least five books. I'm so gonna beat them (up).

Yesterday, Elliot talked about the difference between breaking into the film world versus the publishing world -- excerpted here. What got me was this last bit: "A book is an author alone in a room multiplied by a passage of time. A book isn’t set on permission, a book is grounded on faith."

And The Wheels Keep Turning

Listening to: The Blow, "Hey Boy."

How is it possible I've never talked about Aaron Cometbus before? I wish I was more into the zine scene but there's at least one that I'm a loyal fan of. I wandered into Cometbus' world a few years ago and have been buying and collecting his work whenever I see it. As any Cometbus reader already knows: Aaron is an amazing writer.

If I could create just one piece of work as great as any of his zines, I could retire from writing happily. I won't go into what makes Cometbus amazing but will link to some articles and interviews instead.

"Cometbus shifted course and became something unique that drastically altered the history of zines -- Cometbus switched the focus from documenting bands and music to documenting the stories and subconscious of the punk lifestyle. This change heralded in the Golden Age of zines, and not coincidentally, the Golden Age of Cometbus. In the early 90s as punk broke through into the mainstream with bands like Bikini Kill and Sonic Youth, fanzine culture came burbling to the surface along with it (Kathleen Hannah and Tobi Vail put out zines that are still being reproduced today. Thurston Moore used to write Cometbus to order zines).

Starting with Cometbus #24, the zine became a kind of serialized novel that documented the author’s itinerant lifestyle through the nationwide punk diaspora. During this period, Cometbus moved from town to town, living in each one for only a couple of months at a time. Long walks, lonely diners, and late nights working at the copy shop filled the pages. Tropes like punk love and too much coffee and long trips on the Greyhound bus reigned supreme."
-Cometbus #52: The Spirit of St. Louis; or How to Break Your Own Heart, A Tragedy in 24 Parts-

• Wikipedia entry
• Interview With Aaron Cometbus (2009)
• Larry Livermore on Cometbus #54: In China With Green Day (2011)
• Rumpus article on Cometbus (2010)
• Aaron Cometbus on Writing & Music (2009)
• Despite Everything: A Cometbus Omnibus
• Cometbus zines available from Microcosm Publishing

Bushy Tailed & Bright Eyed

Listening to: Over at Ameer's new music blog, I'm going to be guest posting every week or so. My first Select Sundays just went up and features a song, and a band, I got obsessed with just two days ago while trying to organize and pack up out of San Diego. You'll love the track too I'm sure.

Currently pushing: Slightly Foxed. Awhile back I picked up a whole bunch of short story journals at a SF Public Library Big Book Sale. Included in the haul were stuff like Glimmer Train, Zoetrope, Zyzzyva, and a few issues of something called Slightly Foxed. When I travel I'd grab one or two of these as they were the perfect size for stuffing into a bag and short enough for any amount of waiting time. While I'd gotten through most of the Glimmer Trains and double Z magazines, I hadn't read any of the Slightly Foxed ones yet. Turns out I really should have because they're fantastic. I'll let their about page do the talking:

"In case you haven't come across it, Slightly Foxed is a rather unusual book review. Friendly and unstuffy, each quarter it offers 96 pages of lively personal recommendations for books of lasting interest -- books that have stood the test of time and have left their mark on the people who write about them. It's an eclectic mix, covering all the main categories of fiction and non-fiction, and our contributors are an eclectic bunch too. Some of them are names you'll have heard of, some not, but all write thoughtfully, elegantly and entertainingly."
-www.foxedquarterly.com-

They remind me of Nick Hornby's old Stuff I've Been Reading column in McSweeney's, which I loved and miss dearly. I tried to do a similar thing years ago but lost the motivation. Plus I haven't been reading this year. So in an effort to get back on the wagon, I'm going to dig into some more Slighted Foxed and get all inspired to write about reading. Here's some extracts from the magazine. Check them out and you'll see what I mean about how great the magazine is. Now if only I had an address so I could get a subscription.

I hear it's summer solstice today and since I can't seem to sleep a lick on my first night back in New York, I'm gonna figure out where to go park myself and re-read Protector of the Small: First Test, and then fall asleep outdoors to soak in all fifteen hours of daylight.

It's not as hot here as I'd imagined, so now I'm thinking it's a good idea I brought two pairs of pants. I hate not being able to wear shorts in the summer but conceded that being an adult means wearing pants at night. I also hear the end of the week will bring rain and thunderstorms. I'm anti-umbrella and am lacking a jacket so this should be interesting. I also broke out a new pair of shiny white Chucks for the trip and I'm already sad at the prospect of getting them sullied. Why must things get dirty oh guy or gal in the sky? Can't everything remain impeccably clean forever? Signed, a concerned and definitely OCDish Virgo.

Last of all: "Good morning my neighbors!"

So Much Depends On the Weather

Listening to: The best cover of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros' "Home" ever. I already was in love with the original, having included it in my summer mix tape, but this version by Jorge Narvaez and his daughter is just off the charts loveable.

Usually I'm immune to the charms of children but after hearing Alexa's earnest singing and watching her killer facial expressions, I want one for myself! At the 1:47 minute mark she asks, "One day I'm gonna whistle?" Slays me every time. I've been listening to this thing on repeat and have it as a MP3 if you need to do the same. I better get cranking on the ukulele practice if I want this in my future. I'll have to borrow someone's kid though.

I've been trying to figure out what books I read last year. My memory fails me though and I can only remember a handful. Somewhere inside I'm scared that maybe I only read like seven and that's why I can't remember. That low number seems impossible but I really can't recall. Between moving around a lot and trying to pack light, I didn't have much room for books but I must have read something right?

Another relevant question is what did I actually start and finish? I know I read most of Atmospheric Disturbances (Rivka Galchen), The Russian Debutante's Handbook (Gary Shyteyngart), and A Fairly Honourable Defeat (Iris Murdoch) but I can't recall the endings so that probably means I stopped somewhere. I've found this past year that if I didn't get through something in a few shots, I tended to leave it behind unfinished. Mostly I only completed books that I was able to consume quickly -- such as auto-biographical graphic novels. I know, totally weak. Due to the absurd state of my reading affairs, I think I need to bring back my Stuff I've Been Reading posts, or at least keep a Google Docs reading diary. Still, some book related highlights of 2010.

While visiting my younger cousins in upstate New York, I dug through their bookshelves for reading material. One that caught my eye was Three Junes, by Julia Glass. After ripping through it in a few hours and feeling like I just had a profound experience -- I kept writing down quotes -- I went online to do some author research. Some reviews called Glass' writing overwrought, with a sappiness that rivaled Nicholas Sparks (although Three Junes did win the 2002 National Book Award). The Yale Review of Books mentioned that the cover looked "like a painting by Thomas Kinkade." Ew.

Aghast at how quickly I was pulled into the emotional journey of the McLeod family, I had a flash of embarassment and felt duped. But immediately afterward I wanted to rise to Three Junes' defense because it was damn good, even if it was sappier than Sparks. So this book was my 2010 version of Time Traveler's Wife. Read it for a weeping good time.

"Sometime in our acquaintance, I had forgotten that I was not a part of Mal's mainstream life, that he had chosen to keep me drifting along on my separate, obscure little tributary. I had forgotten that I was hardly his only source of help or companionship. I was a neighbor, a valet, a pet-sitter. I felt humbled and insulted."
-Three Junes-

Book recommendations from friends tend to be more fraught with danger than movie recommends -- if only due to time committment. You have to vet the person before you can trust their opinion, although I'll gladly take anyone's recommends for favorite books and such. That's fun because you can tell a lot about a person by their favorites.

This year I finally read City of Thieves (David Benioff), which Lilly had recommended a while back and literally for me as we stood in line. I should have listened to her then because City of Thieves is absolutely great and I'm a fool for not having read it sooner. Benioff also writes and adapts screenplays -- including his own book for The 25th Hour -- and is the son of a former head of Goldman Sachs, as well as married to a movie starlet. Here's an interview with him so you can see David in all his curly haired glory.

A San Francisco book club friend and fellow writer told me to read Patricia Wrede's young adult fantasy series, the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. She lent me the box set and I read all four in like two days because the writing was hilarious and the characters super charming. The type of fantasy books I read growing up weren't like this -- more swords and fighting -- so I missed out on these clever classics. If I could write like this I could well, totally be successful and retire.

Very recently, another friend lent me Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood (Michael Lewis). I'd read most of Lewis' other stuff before but hadn't even heard of Home Game, which is about his adventures in fatherhood. Apparently it's based off of a column he's been writing for Slate since 2002. Home Game is great and everyone should read it, not just prospective fathers. And guess who Lewis is married to? Ex-MTV VJ Tabitha Soren! What a surprising and delightful pairing right? Oh man, is 2011 the year of kids for me? I'm reading about them, gushing over them on Youtube, what is happening? Is my heart molting?

High up on my "to read" list was Super Sad Love Story, Shteyngart's latest. (Tangent: I'm trying to get my non-existent New York book club to read it but it's been impossibly hard to start one out here, like two months and still no first meeting.) But on a flight over winter break, I started reading Absurdistan and the way Shteyngart characterized the black girlfriend put me off so much that I needed to put him on time out. I know Shteyngart's writing is highly satirical but I can't stomach this one. It's a good thing he's semi-foreign otherwise this caricature might have me slinging a particular R-word at him.

"There are a lot of stereotypes here and plenty of intellectually incorrect exercises in racial and group determinism. Shteyngart, via Misha, thinks in peoples, not just individuals. He jokes in peoples, too, and not only about Jews and Russians, as his heritage entitles him to, but about Muslims, Germans, Brooklynites and every other in-group he can outrage. One envies his sense of entitlement to biases, and his frank understanding of the fact that such crude distinctions make the world go round. Especially these days, when they're not supposed to. When, ostensibly, we're all United Nations blue."
-NY Times review of Absurdistan (2006)-

So that's it. My pathetic year in reading. The books from 2010 that I need to read soon include the biggies, Freedom and A Visit From the Goon Squad, neither of which are avoidable because most book stores are plastered with them and they're both on every "best of" list. There's also some big talk among my friends of choosing one novel and then submitting book reports to each other, for grades no less, after we're done. I am enthusiastic about this plan.

Modern Age (Live)

Currently pushing: The Lefsetz Letter. I've had a new email friend for the past two weeks. His name is Bob Lefsetz and he writes to me about the music and entertainment industry. Bob doesn't know I exist but that's quite alright. He's a busy guy and according to his Wikipedia, Bob used to be the majordomo of a music company. The only major domo I knew of before was an android one that works for a fictional X-Villain, so this is quite exciting.

You can read more about Bob and his letter here but I'd recommend subscribing because getting his multiple emails a day has quickly become a highlight. I guess in theory you could just RSS his new blog, but it doesn't feel as personal.

I found out about The Leftsetz Letter by following Stephen Elliot's The Daily Rumpus, which has no RSS feed and is a must subscribe. So now I have two friends who email me on the regular, ain't that great?

I used to try to read reviews about things before I went to them. Food places, bars, clubs, and especially movies, books, and music. For awhile, having that extra knowledge allowed me to hedge my bets about what would be a decent time or not.

Recently however, I've had to give up the habit because reading reviews is getting useless. Take Yelp for example. Once you aggregate enough opinions, you'll pretty much just end up with three or four stars across the board. With no authority or expertise, these people's opinions are worthless to me. I mean, I can't trust Deborah S.'s review of the Japanese restaurant without knowing how much experience she's had with sushi. One schmo's "amazing onion rings" could just be limp and greasy to me. Even trusting friend's opinions on food has gotten dicier over the years.

Very recently, as of last week, I've been questioning the opinions of professional reviewers a lot. For example, we went to see Time Stands Still, starring Laura Linney and Christina Ricci. It's the story of a photo journalist and her recovery from a land mine blast. It addressed some timely topics, it has a smooth and sometimes witty script, and it has Laura Linney. Sadly, after two hours, both my friend and I were underwhelmed. She felt the timing of everything felt sitcommy, I felt the story went nowhere, and we both agreed that it was capable but hardly memorable.

Then I got to reading the reviews. There were more than a few gushing ones, with stuff like, "[this] quietly powerful drama illustrates just how much pain and trauma are involved in the everyday business of two people creating a life together, one that accommodates the mistakes of the past, the reality of the present and the changes that the future may bring."

Um, I didn't get any of that. Or I did but it was way over the top and there was hardly anything "quiet" about the drama or the themes. I felt bludgeoned. So what am I missing here? Am I not well versed enough in plays to appreciate this fine work? Am I too lowbrow to understand what's going on? Or am I not the audience this work was intended for? At their best, professional reviewers can lend perspective to a place or a piece, but I'm not sure how well they can help you answer "will I like it?"

For movies I exclusively consult James Berardelli's Reelviews.net. I don't necessarily agree with his reviews, but I got to understand his taste and could figure out which movies I could like based on my knowledge of our shared likes/dislikes. That works well for me, and I'd recommend finding one or two critics who you can learn to stand by. Going with the wisdom of the crowds is inane. I have a friend who only watches movies rated 90% or higher on Rotten Tomatoes. I think it's the dumbest way of deciding what to watch because the "a lot of people can't all be wrong" philosophy is the direct path toward entertainment doom.

Listening to friends should be the way to go, but as the recent shut down of Netflix's movie share feature shows, maybe that's not something people care about either. While I never used the feature that much, I do have a small list of trusted movie friends from whom I'll take recommendations, because I know the things they recommend will have some value, and even if we disagree, they're open to talking about it. I hate watching a movie and then the other person has nothing to say about it. Booooring.

Having said all that, who wants to watch Love and Other Drugs with me?!

Freedom Flukes

Currently pushing: Longform.org is a great site with articles, past and present, that are well, long. I'd RSS them if I were you.

Our Friday night wrapped up with an episode of Whale Wars, you know, the show where crazy people people throw themselves (and/or bottles of butyric acid) onto whaling ships in an effort to curb commercial whaling. During most of this episode, they showed captain Paul Watson cunningly decide to navigate the Sea Sheperd through some ice floes in an attempt to ditch his Japanese tail. This genius idea resulted in the Sheperd getting stuck -- they were not equipped with an ice class hull -- and eventually emerging only to find that the practical Japanese ship had simply gone around and was now closer to them than before. There's obviously a lot of unintentional comedy in Whale Wars, but there's also some interesting questions raised.

Questions like: Wait, why are people still hunting whales? What are they providing us with in the 21st century? Is disabling whaling boats one by one the best way to dissuade whalers? Why are the boats using water cannons against each other? Especially ones with a range of about ten feet? Is it biased to only care (more) about magnificent endangered animals at the expense of less cute ones? Why is "Bob Barker" the name of one of the anti-whaling ships? That answer is easily answered at least.

For last month's book club, we read Moby Dick and I got a pretty detailed view of how whaling in the 1800's worked. When they say that Moby Dick has many pages of whaling information, many of them focused on whale physiology and the like, they weren't kidding. For me though, these asides were actually my favorite part of the book, even if they could have been separated out into a companion volume.

Melville's protagonist has a bit about how the population of whales wouldn't ever truly be in danger because the math didn't add up. A whaling ship might return after a two or three year voyage after snaring fifty whales. With the danger and effort required to hunt down whales (whose remains were used for all sorts of essential items), the thinking was that whales wouldn't be eradicated ala the buffalo, which could -- and was -- killed with much more efficiency.

Then along came more technology, which made it much easier to track whales, outspeed whales, and advanced weaponry. If we wanted to, we could probably wipe out our enemy, the whale, in a few years time. Thank goodness we have the International Whaling Commission to avoid this. Oh wait, membership (and a vote) can be gifted to you by the Japanese, even if you might be a land locked country or a country without any prior history of whaling. I learned that little fact watching "The Cove," which is as biased a movie as it is an interesting one. I'd recommend it if not for the total bullying idiocy demonstrated by the activists while making the film.

Over at Long Form, they have an almost 10,000 word long article about killer whales in captivity, "The Killer in the Pool." I don't know if you'd want to spend a few minutes reading it through but it's worth your time -- especially if you're an admirer of marine life like me. One of the questions raised in the article is if having killer whales in captivity has outlived their research usefulness. I'm a long time Sea World season pass holder (and love Shamu Cam), but maybe I need to reconsider where I stand on the issue. And not just because it's sad to see dorsal fin collapse.

Recently I've been thinking about my stance on sushi too. I gave up vegetarianism right before I discovered sushi and it's no coincidence I haven't gone back. Raw fish is delicious and healthy and probably my favorite food. The problem is, it's a lot of people's favorite foods too. This New York Times article talks about the end of bluefin tuna. I don't know what kind of tuna I eat, except that it's delicious. But it's stupid to eat something just because it's delicious right? It would probably be the right thing to give up eating tuna, or to give up consuming sushi altogether, but that sounds painful.

"Bluefin sportfishing’s rise, however, coincided with Japan’s export boom. In the 1960s and ’70s, Japanese planes stuffed with electronics unloaded in the U.S. and returned empty -- a huge waste of fuel. But when a Japanese entrepreneur realized he could buy New England and Canadian bluefin for a song, he started filling up all those empty cargo holds with tuna. Exposure to beef and other fatty meats during the U.S. occupation had already drawn the Japanese to appreciate bluefin’s fatty belly (otoro, in sushi terms). The Atlantic bluefin, the biggest bluefin, became the most favored of all. This appreciation boomeranged stateside when Americans started to develop their own raw-fish habit in the late 1970s."
-Tuna's End-

This is how it is nowadays, picking and choosing your moral ambiguities. Anti-diamonds, blood or otherwise, but pro-Shamu and sushi. There's no doing wrong or right, just doing whatever makes you feel okay. The facts justify the ends and we know what they say about facts. Or maybe that was stats.

To the Pain

Listening to: Voxtrot, "The Start of Something." The lead singer Ramesh Srivastava, is Indian American and when you Google him you get essays on "Wit and Humour in Indian English Literature" by a Dr. Ramesh K. Srivastgava, who is obviously not the same person but interesting nonetheless. Voxtrot are currently on their farewell tour, which is a shame because they do nice retro pop.

This past weekend, I attended Literary Death Match, for the express purpose of seeing the inimitable Taylor Mali (tumblr). A few hundred people crowded into the Yuerba Buena Center for the Arts -- a beautiful vast venue that I had been to before, for a night of (very too long) house dancing -- to watch four contestants face off. Think a poetry slam but less poetry. The judges for the event included Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket and Brian Boitano aka Olympic figure skating champion.

Everyone involved in the event was hilarious and entertaining. I was surprised that so many people were gathered together for an event that essentially featured only thirty minutes of reading. Perhaps this is the new thing, to combine theater and performance with literature. I guess it's not a new thing exactly, since technically performing has always been a part of literature. But I hope you know what you mean. Or maybe it's just new to me. I kept running calculations in my head like "There are four hundred people in the room, at ten dollars a head and seven minutes per performance...this is a racket (for charity)!" The important thing is that Literary Death Match is loads of fun and I would love to go again.

Mali ended up losing in the first round and I was sorely disappointed because I know how much he likes to win -- and I thought he definitely should have won his matchup. Daniel Alarcon, who was recently named one of The New Yorker's "20 Under 40" and is thus hot stuff, was crowned the night's champ after a literary geography trivia contest. Alarcon looked dramatically young and had a cheering section of Oakland folk planted at the front of the stage. A friend of a friend was seated with his adorers and I had a hard time processing that this much lauded writer genius was my age and hung out with the same types of people. That and he wasn't twenty feet tall or something. Actually, he probably is twenty feet tall, he just looks smaller close up. His book, Lost City Radio, is apparently a must-read. So I will read it.

Stuff I've Been Reading 12

BOOKS READ:

Evil Genius - Catherine Jinks

Top of the World: 2008 Boston Celtics - Peter May

24 Girls in 7 Days - Alex Bradley

Sex and the Single Girl - Helen Gurley Brown

A Step From Heaven - An Na

Good Omens - Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

Shenzhen: A Travelogue From China - Guy Delisle

Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson

So I've been keeping this column for a year now. It's proven to be useful in remembering what I've been reading but beyond that I'm not sure it's served much purpose. I do enjoy writing it though and it's been fun to go looking through what I've read in the past month. In the long run it makes more sense to do this over at Goodreads since most of my reading friends are on there. I'm sure it'll be easier to compile and update too. So I'm thinking this may be my last "Stuff I've Been Reading."

With that in mind, I wanted to do some statistical analysis on exactly what sorts of things I've spent my time on. A month or two ago, one of my friends asked me for my Top 50 fiction books. I didn't think I'd read that many good books period, much less fiction. But I'm a sucker for lists so I gave it my best shot. I petered out around forty books I'd generally recommend. It seemed depressing. Like all this time spent reading, a literal lifetime, and I couldn't compile fifty great books to recommend. I finished my list but only by really stretching the bounds of "great." I had to resort to using "classic," which really means nothing. I had to even dig deep into middle school and high school books. "Where the Red Fern Grows" anyone?

Roughly speaking, I've read 75 books this year. That doesn't sound too bad, considering it's an average of a book every five days. But that's taking into account books that aren't really books. Light fluffy page turners, non-fiction topical things, and YA novels that are high in excitement but really only take a few hours to breeze through. Plus, compiling the list from my Stuff I've Been Reading 1-12 is a bit misleading because there's some books I've reread and some books I didn't fully finish. There was only one month I read nothing, March, which coincided with having to turn in one of the major drafts of Exclusively Chloe.

The general breakdown goes like this: 75 total books read. 22 fiction, 30 non-fiction, 18 young adult, and 5 on how to write or writing related. Of those thirty non-fiction books, eight dealt with the Celtics, basketball, or chess. I don't mean to separate out YA but they are generally shorter and easy to breeze through and often were read for research purposes. Of the fiction books, three were short story compilations, five or six were part of a sci-fi/fantasy series, and only three or four were heavy and serious book-like. Oh and one was a graphic novel.

Overall, for my year of reading, I'd be able to say that I'd recommend seven books that were definitely really great. My top ten looks like this, with the bottom three being a bit of a stretch.

1. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
   
2. Love is a Mix Tape - Rob Sheffield
   
3. How To Be Alone - Jonathan Franzen
   
4. Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson
   
5. Watchmen - Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
   
6. The Princess Bride - William Goldman
   
7. Good Omens - Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
   
8. Soon I Will Be Invincible - Austin Grossman
   
9. Lullaby - Chuck Palahniuk
   
10. Personal Days - Ed Park
    

That's kind of, well, sad. It means that approximately for every ten books I read, only one is truly memorable and worth recommending. Then again, that's probably a similar ratio with movies.

I made three large Amazon orders this year, each time for about a dozen books. I rediscovered the wonders of the library, tried to resist buying things in brick and mortar establishments, and received lots of free YA books provided to me. Total cost of buying books (which I can write off!) is probably $600. A small price to pay for edification and knowledge right? Then again, I question what I really remember from most of these books. My long term memory is shot and even though I was fascinated by books about Google, McDonald's, Wal-Mart, The Fifties, biological civilization, Wall Street, I'm not sure what I could recall too many interesting facts or stories.

All in all, it's probably a sign that I should divide up my reading time better. Read some books that have heft (and smaller print), try to read and process, and more importantly, remember what might be striking about each piece. Maybe it's time to start a book journal to jot down thoughts, great lines, and interesting themes that need to be explored.

Anyhow, thanks Nick Hornby for the inspiration! It's been fun.

Stuff I've Been Reading 11

BOOKS READ:

Chuck Klosterman IV - Chuck Klosterman

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs - Chuck Klosterman

No one belongs here more than you - Miranda July

Love is a Mix Tape - Rob Sheffield

Geek Magnet - Kieran Scott

Model Spy (The Specialists) - Shannon Greenland

Westminster Abby (S.A.S.S.) - Micol Ostow

Cindy Ella - - Robin Palmer

Plus many other YA books flipped through

I can't really report that I finished my stated goal of reading a dozen YA books. Goal, unaccomplished. However, starting and finishing are two altogether different things and in that respect, I probably did shoot through about ten YA books on hand and kind of got my fill and got all inspired -- which was the point. Now that I feel like I'm a semi-accredited YA author, I take interest in the debate about "What is a young adult novel?" Some people feel like a young adult novel would basically be dumbed down versions of adult books. Like cartoons versus live action shows. Obviously this is a broad, and very faulty, stereotype. Cartoons are real too, just like YA novels.

But there is a difference between the two, so what is it? Well, it's hard to say. It's not the language, that's for sure. Teens probably have a better vocabularies than most adults so you don't have to shy away from using big words or anything. So that's certainly not the difference. I do like this quote, which attributes some of the difference between young adult and adult books to a matter of perspective.

"The protagonist in YA fiction is almost always a young person, from a teenager to late teens to early twenties. Yes, adult fiction has characters of this age, but generally adult fiction looks in on the young person's life, whereas YA fiction lives out the young person's life. This is perhaps the biggest difference between the Young Adult titles and adult titles. YA titles will tend to be told from the point of view of the young person."
-Ian Bone, Playing with the Big Kids-

To be honest, I was confused and not entirely sure of the definition myself until I really started doing YA research. In the beginning, I wondered if YA books were the equivalent of PG-13 movies. No nudity, less swearing, drinking and drugs only as a morality lesson, and not too much on-screen violence. I wondered if you could touch upon themes that were dark or serious. Well, now I know. You can do anything you want. A good book is a good book and the young adult classification isn't there to put some sort of gauzy happy filter over everything.

The best example of a book that's always in the YA section nowadays is "The Outsiders," which everyone read in school. I don't think I would have associated it with YA until I kept seeing it shelved there and realized that the fact it's about teenagers, told from a teenager's perspective, and S.E. Hinton was fourteen when she wrote it makes it the prototypical YA book. But The Outsiders has violence, death, cursing, murder, alcohol, drugs, and all sorts of bad things in it. And it's a timeless classic.

"The language can be chaste or peppered with all sorts of choice profanities. Such a story could deal with vaguely sexualized 'crushes' without there being graphic portrayals of sex; another such story could deal with the confusion that revolves around the unfolding of one's sexuality. There is nothing inherently 'fluffy' or 'light' in such stories, even if the emotions expressed might seem puerile to those of us who are older and more cynical about matters of the heart and loins.

I have found that the best-written YA lit (defined here as being stories that focus on common adolescent themes and worries, often with a teen protagonist) is very frank and honest with its audience, even if the said audience is as disparate and divided as the stereotypical school lunchroom seating arrangement."
-OF Blog of the Fallen-

I've never experienced this -- and I can't wait to! -- but YA authors are often looked down upon in the literary world. There's a NY Times editorial from an author who comes to terms (sort of) with her book being bought by a YA imprint. Like it's not "real" that she's a YA author. It all sounds like the snobby stereotyping that comic books, cartoons, board games, and other childish pursuits have to fight against; that they're not as serious or important as other types of art. This is definitely a fight I would gladly suit up for.

And don't look now but YA novels are huge money makers. The YA market attracts all sorts of "real" authors and more than ever, shows and movies are based on fare aimed at young adults. Hello Twilight, I can't wait to watch you soon!

"'I see now that dismissing YA books because you're not a young adult is a little bit like refusing to watch thrillers on the grounds that you're not a policeman or a dangerous criminal, and as a consequence, I've discovered a previously ignored room at the back of the bookstore that's filled with masterpieces I've never heard of.'"
-Nick Hornby-

Stuff I've Been Reading 10

BOOKS READ:

Girls For Breakfast - David Yoo

Watchmen - Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

Personal Days - Ed Park

Sweep - Cate Tiernan

How to Write A Damn Good Novel - James N. Frey

Simon Bloom, The Gravity Keeper - Michael Reisman

My personal goal while being back in San Diego and settling down again is to read a dozen YA novels in the next month. What I've discovered while working on this goal is that I can't read YA stuff along with other things. Usually I have a few books I flip around in but when I'm trying to get into the head space or tone of a YA novel, I can't read really read anything else or I lose my train of thought, as it were. Or maybe I just like these YA novels so much that I'm getting sucked in and don't want to stop.

Other things I'm hoping to fit into this schedule are books about reading and writing. One of them is titled "How to Read a Book." It's advertised as "the classic guide to intelligent reading" and comes highly recommended. I kind of love it, even if it's slow going. Seeing as I've never really taken a literature or writing class, I feel like I need to self educate myself, and fast. I was talking with a friend the other day and she said that I could probably remedially just learn some proper grammar by working through the right books. That would involve discipline and self motivation of course, but it's something I should challenge myself to do because it's my livelihood!

I mean, when I was playing with Lulu Titlescorer, a fun little app that tells you the chances your book will be a bestseller based on the title, I got lost on the little drop-down boxes about the words in my title. I mean, do I really fully understand what a "proper noun used as adjective/modifier" or "preposition/article" are? Um, maybe not.

I took my best swing at it and my chances of producing a bestseller with my next book is 69%. Not bad right? Roll the dice and cue the champagne!

Stuff I've Been Reading 9

BOOKS READ:

• Fortress of Solitude - Jonathan Lethem
• The Big Three - Peter May
• King's Gambit - Paul Hoffman

I've been traveling all month and had ambitious plans to finish a few books. I figured I would have some down time waiting for trains or planes, or have moments when I had nothing do to. Instead I was always out and about and with people, dramatically cutting down on my time to read anything. Mainly I whipped through half of Fortress of Solitude during the plane ride to New York and a train to Washington DC. I took the opportunity to buy a whole bunch of stuff from Amazon and it all arrived during my one day stopover at home, in San Diego. In my excitement to receive my Boston Celtics 1985-1986 DVD, I finished The Big Three while neglecting everything else I was supposed to do.

I remember whipping through tons of books when I lived in New York (Jersey City) because I'd be able to read all the time while waiting for subways. I loved it. I could remain in my little zone and read, read, read, without the fear of falling asleep, which is always a possibility when reading at home. Commuter reading is totally the best.

While in New York, I had a chance to visit my publisher's office and they took me to the "book room." Imagine a super large closet filled with piles of books everywhere. I couldn't have been more excited and they further enhanced my childish glee by literally handing me tons of books to take with me. I couldn't get enough and was only restricted by how much I might be able to carry. It was a dream come true! And then my editor was kind enough to say "Oh if there's anything around you see published by us, tell me and we'll send you a copy."

Um, seriously?

The last book I managed to start this month was Hoffman's chess book. The first half of it is one of the better chess books I've read. Hoffman writes about chess in this really exciting way and illuminates many of the players and characters in chess. While "Searching for Bobby Fischer" is hard to beat for an emotional chess story, I have to say that Hoffman's book is quickly climbing my list of must-reads for chess enthusiasts. Next up, I want to read "Chess Bitch" by Jennifer Shahade, which I can't believe I've never picked up yet, even though I see it all the time.

Fred Waitzkin, the author of Searching for Bobby Fischer, has another chess book about Garry Kasparov called Mortal Games, which is sadly out of print but totally worth tracking down. I love chess books that tell a story of chess, whether it be personal or historical. If only I had the ability to actually play chess to the level where strategy books could become decipherable.  Sadly, I'm not even a patzer. But I'm starting to think I should turn my attentions to becoming a better chess player since my physical pursuits are clearly slipping.

Stuff I've Been Reading 8

BOOKS READ:

• Red Prophet - Orson Scott Card
• After the Quake - Haruki Murakami
• Skellig - David Almond
• Charmed Thirds - Megan McCafferty
• Teen Girlfriends - Julia DeVillers
• Wonder Boys - Michael Chabon
• Mary Jane - Judith O'Brien

It's so hard to recommend books to people. Even when I personally love a book, I'm at best sixty percent positive someone else will like it. Usually it's a toss up. That differs from movies quite a bit doesn't it? A good movie is a good movie, regardless of whether it's your particular genre or not. If you ask me if a movie is good or if it's worth watching, I'll can say with some confidence whether or not you'll like it just based on the quality of the film. A movie that works is rarely a waste of time but a book recommendation, that's a four to ten hour thing you're handing out. Plus, a book can work perfectly well but personal preferences can still torpedo the enjoyment of it.

Out of this month's books, many of them were friend recommendations of one sort or another. I started Card's Alvin Maker series last month and I even have all seven books on hand but I just can't get into it. I love the Ender's series (actually, I mailed a copy to Shelley and she liked it so I felt great) so by extension I like Card. I received solid recommendations for Alvin Maker from both Jennifer and Janice and even with all that, the first two books just didn't work for me. Like I probably enjoyed twenty percent of what I was reading. I slogged through five hundred pages like it was a chore. And I did it for friendship! I decided to let that go and come back around to it in a few years or something. Friendship is worth one book apiece, not seven total.

"Murakami" has been the word of the month. Jennifer gave James and Bassemah different Murakami's to read (Wind Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore, respectively). They were both well received and much appreciated. I happened to start the Murakami short story collection one day at her house and ended up reading most of it. I feel like having "Murakami" flow effortlessly off your tongue can only do good things for your literary game. Japanese names just sound so authentically smart. Then again, if you confuse designer Takashi Murakami with author Haruki Murakami, you'll just look uncultured. Or racist. Or both.

Nick Hornby, best selling author and not a personal friend of mine by any stretch of the imagination, recommended Skellig in one of his columns. He gave it a hearty two thumbs up and the subject matter and potential audience (YA) seemed pertinent to my life right now. Instead I found the story a bit weak and boring. I don't know if I can trust Nick anymore. Just one small disagreement with a gushy review of his and I'm already questioning our imaginary book friendship. It's so hard you know?

One of my favorite book recommenders, Christina, really likes Megan McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts and the Jessica Darling books that followed. Of course, the library didn't carry anything except the third one and I pretty much just shot her recommendation through the foot by diving into the series backwards, from worst to best. Also, I took out Don DeLillo's White Noise for the second time but didn't even start it. Everyone tells me I'll love Don but I just can't seem to motivate to give him a fair shake.

If someone told me that a best friend could be made by just stepping outside for a quick coffee date, I would go right? So why can't I just start the DeLillo? Am I afraid it'll ruin the credibility of book recommenders I care about if I hate it? Maybe... I'm just afraid of disappointment alright? What does it say that everyone absolutely agrees I'll like DeLillo and then I don't like him? Do my friends know me less than I think they do or am I just too dumb to recognize quality work? See the potential problems here? "It's complicated" isn't just a relationship status, it applies to absolutely everything.

I think if I'm going to recommend something, I have to get over the idea that if they hate it, it'll reflect poorly on me. Reading is such a personal experience that you can't really judge exactly what a person will like versus what they'll hate. Even if the writing style, the genre, the everything matches up, you can still end up with a busted book blind date. So the way to keep plugging along pushing books on other people is to just blame them when they don't like something. It takes all the guilt out of the process I think. Once again, self-delusionment and non-responsibility seems to be the answer. I'm sensing a theme here.

Stuff I've Been Reading 7

BOOKS READ:

• Seventh Son - Orson Scott Card
• Despite Everything - Aaron Cometbus
• Reading Like a Writer - Francine Prose
• Unfinished Business - Jack McCallum
• Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott

The only (new) book I've read in the last six weeks has been the Card, which I just finished yesterday. All the other ones listed above I've either read before or just flipped through enough to feel like I finished it. I don't feel like I haven't been reading but I guess it's been a dry spell. Between writing a new draft, watching the basketball playoffs, and trying to get out of the house, I've had no time to actually sit down and read a book maybe?

That's just a poor excuse though. Readers read, period. But so much of my time is spent in front of the computer I guess I'm skimming articles and blogs more than actually reading. So what separates me from the masses of "non-readers" who only consume short pieces and articles in magazines and online? Not much I guess.

And I quote "non-readers" because people who don't read books are considered capable of reading but not really readers. There's a few simple categories of readers. While I'm here, I'll just make a quick ranking.

Zero (0)
Can't/won't read at all. Like anything more complex than a menu would be taxing. Paragraphs are soooo long.
Favorite book: The funny pages

See Spot Run (1)
Reads a magazine on a flight or a newspaper during breakfast. Books with pictures and articles with bullet points are super awesome. Light internet browsing.
Favorite book: Who Moved My Cheese?

Blue Fish, Red Fish (2)
People who like to read but often only in niche categories. Subject matter is the most important quality when looking for something. Thinks self-help books qualify as reading. Medium internet browsing.
Favorite book: Tuesdays with Morrie

Gladwell's Code (3)
Light and fluffy fiction top sellers with a mix of the occasional hot non-fiction of the season. Knows where the tipping point is, why economics freak people out, and has a sizable collection of buy two get one free selections. "I totally read that in eighth grade!" Possible heavy internet browsing.
Favorite book: Harry Potter

Years of Solitude (4)
Seasoned reader. Scoffs at low brow drivel. Familiarity with the classics and devotes time to serious works. Not confined to genres because a book is a book is a book. Wouldn't be lost looking at a list of the 100 best novels. "I really enjoyed her earlier work but her new stuff sucks."
Favorite book: Something foreign

Rushdie's Rainbow (5)
Consumes literature, can talk about the works of so-and-so, isn't afraid of diving into something experimental. Words and ideas are fuel for life. One of their goals in life is to have a room for a personal library. The library card is always maxed out.
Favorite book: Gravity's Rainbow

Apparently length matters. Readers are people who can curl up with a book and commit to something longer than ten pages. Non-readers basically consume things in little bite sized pieces.

Anyway, since the beginning of summer has been such a bust in the reading department, I think I'm going to make a list of books for summer reading and make sure to finish them all by say, September.

Lilly was talking about a great idea the other day: starting a summer read-a-thon just like when we were kids. Remember those? You raced to read as many books as you could and then when you returned to school you got prizes like medals and trophies and pieces of paper to hang on the fridge. Of course, people have jobs now so an adult read-a-thon might be hard but it's a worthy goal. I'm going to start making my list now.

Oh, I consider myself a 3.5 reader. Somewhere in-between the things you find at the front of the bookstore and the stuff I can't pronounce without mumbling.

Stuff I've Been Reading 6

BOOKS READ:

• Down & Out in the Magic Kingdom - Cory Doctorow
• Lullaby - Chuck Palahniuk
• Writing Down the Bones - Natalie Goldberg
• How To Be Alone - Jonathan Franzen
• The Fifties - David Halberstam
• Self-Editing for Fiction Writers - Browne/King
• The Modern Jewish Girl's Guide to Guilt - ed. Ruth Andrew Ellenson

Do you read for entertainment or for edification? Most people mix it up between the two, and for the most part, reading a book should give you some food for thought, regardless of how trashy it might be. The problem is, as always, what to do with all these books you've read? Not literally, but metaphysically speaking.

Let's say it takes me six hours to finish a normal sized book. That's three movies, half a night of sleep, and an afternoon of sitting around. Sure, I could learn some really interesting information (the Halberstam book this month is great) or I could feel like I've read something totally spectacular (Lullaby was like that) but at the end of the day -- or life -- what application does either of them have? I can feel a bit smarter, a bit wiser, a bit more knowlegeable, and possibly content but most books just come and go without a lasting effect. That kind of sucks doesn't it?

The only way I can come to grips with this problem is to think about books in the context of other entertainment. Do I enjoy it over most movies, television, and other media? Most certainly. I couldn't live without books. Then again, I couldn't live without movies and television either. There's a huge letdown to know that even if you can read twenty books a month, you'd hardly be making any dent into the huge sum of human knowledge.

For example, if we could someday just download every single book straight into our brain, would we? That would perhaps suck the romance and fun out of reading but it would quickly and effectively give us more free time to... watch more TV or something. I think I would probably opt for that option if it were available actually. So I guess the final answer is that I read for entertainment and hope for edification to justify the expense.

I, like, feel sad about that.

Stuff I've Been Reading 5

BOOKS READ:

• The A-List - Zoey Dean
• Hollywood Car Wash - Lori Culwell
• The Wal-Mart Effect - Charles Fishman
• Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - John Perkins
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
• Best American Non-Required Reading 2002 - ed. David Eggers

Upon finding out that I hadn't read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Lilly was kind enough to immediately purchase a copy for me because she thought it was just my type of thing. She's right, of course, it's exactly the type of book I like. I mean, it's about comic books! And it has big words I have to look up in the dictionary, and it qualifies as a big important novel because it won the Pulitzer Prize, in 2001.

I'd always known the name "Michael Chabon" because he's unavoidable once you read Eggers and McSweeney's and he's prolific and ubiquitous once you're aware of him, but I hadn't ever read any of his works. Why is beyond me. Amazing Adventures is not only brilliant but also highly entertaining and poetic. I hate that it's been out for eight years and I only discovered it now. The next author I really need to explore is Dom DeLillo because he's been recommended more than once and I don't want to pass him up anymore, just like I did Chabon.

"I was afraid that the book, on its surface, would be off-putting to women readers. It's about comic books, and in my greatly enlarged recent experience it's become clear that women have a very negative attitude toward comic books. They didn't grow up reading them, for the most part.

I was surprised that my wife thought it was a good idea, then again with my agent, another woman, then my editor, another woman - in spite of the fact that all three of them reacted positively I still have this fear. It probably reaches deep down into my childhood history as a geek, being interested in comic books and getting nowhere with girls. Those two things going hand-in-hand. But the response has been very positive; women readers are finding lots to enjoy."
-Interview with M.Chabon, Powell's-

There's really no denying it, comic books and super heroes are cool again. Which means, Soon I Will Be Cool (err, Invincible). Okay, fine, maybe not, but geeks have inherited the planet and I'm ready for my time in the sun. Mainly because I'm pale as a sheet from never being awake during daylight hours. I need summer, and beach time, like right now.

While waiting around for my roast beef sandwich at a deli where long waits are par for the course, I saw that the counter girl was reading Card's Speaker for the Dead. While Ender's Game is quite a popular (relatively) sci-fi book among the normal girl set, I was very impressed that she was onto the sequel and seemed to not be able to tear her attention away -- she was almost done -- to accept my cash at the register. That's awesome.

Stuff I've Been Reading 4

BOOKS READ:

none

I haven't read a single book in the past month. Which would be alarming except it's been by design. I kind of started "Eat, Pray, Love" but came nowhere close to finishing it. Book club had Zadie Smith's "On Beauty" up on deck, which is something I really want to read, but I skipped it. Mainly I've been consumed with writing, thinking, writing, thinking. I'm in the middle of revising another draft of the book and there's a lot of work to be done.

Rome wasn't built in a day and writing a book isn't either. I wonder if anyone is capable of whipping out a near perfect first draft. Did you know Good Will Hunting was originally supposed to be much more action orientated? Car chases, government intrigue, the works. Instead, after a few re-conceptions and rewrites, we got the touchy feely version with no action whatsoever. Obviously, the latter proved to be much more effective and endearing.

The thing I keep trying to remember as I look at all the great and amazing things around me is that it takes multiple tries to perfect something. It gives hope to the common man doesn't it?

Stuff I've Been Reading 3

BOOKS BOUGHT:

I'm letting this section go. I discovered the library and really, I don't buy that many books anyway

BOOKS READ:

Adverbs - Daniel Handler

Seven Seconds or Less - Jack McCallum

Friday Night Lights - HG Bissinger

The Sword and the Chain - Joel Rosenberg

The Heir Apparent - Joel Rosenberg

The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

McDonald's - John F. Love

The Search - John Battelle

The Chess Artist - J.C. Hallman

Out of Control - Kevin Kelly

Cultural Intelligence - Thomas/Inkson

Soon I Will Be Invincible - Austin Grossman

Here's a big problem for me. As I try to write this semi-monthly column about the books I've read (or tried to read at least), it's becoming increasingly hard to fit the titles into the space at the top of each post. Every book title now has a long description about itself after the ":" mark. It's useful for marketing and selling purposes I'm sure, but it's killing my blog.

I mean, Jack McCallum's "Seven Seconds or Less" is actually supposed to be "Seven Seconds or Less: My Season on the Bench with the Running' and Gunnin' Phoenix Suns." I had to check that twice over just to make sure I got the wording and punctuation right. Try fitting all of that on one line.

For aesthetic reasons, I refuse to let a book/author pairing go over their allotted space. If I wasn't so anal, here's what this month's list would look like:

Adverbs: A Novel - Daniel Handler

Seven Seconds or Less: My Season on the Bench with the Running' and Gunnin' Phoenix Suns - Jack McCallum

Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream - HG Bissinger

The Sword and the Chain - Joel Rosenberg

The Heir Apparent - Joel Rosenberg

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

McDonald's: Behind the Arches - John F. Love

The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture - John Battelle

The Chess Artist: Genius, Obsession, and the World's Oldest Game - J.C. Hallman

Out of Control: The Rise of Neo-Biological Civilization - Kevin Kelly

Cultural Intelligence: People Skills for Global Business - Thomas/Inkson

Soon I Will Be Invincible - Austin Grossman

Ridiculous right? It's like trying to run the 100-yard dash with a huge wedding train flaring out behind you. Actually, I even cheated a little because the copy that I have of "Out of Control" is actually sub-titled "Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, & the Economic World." Which is, to be sure, much more explanatory than "Out of Control: The Rise of Neo-Biological Civilization." But which one sounds cooler?

While this long title problem is more prevalent in the non-fiction world -- where the abstract titles sometimes do need a bit of an explanation and a hook -- take a look at "Adverbs: A Novel." I'm not sure why that's there; the book is fiction and clearly adding "A Novel" doesn't help explain anything. I mean, Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) is a wonderful writer but I'm trying to figure out if it was his idea to add the appendage or if it was something tacked on by mistake. Check out the cover for Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones." It clearly has "A novel" printed on it, which is semi-helpful I guess, but it's not part of its official name.

Perhaps my book should have been "The Rough Guide to Blogging: A Guide about Blogging." Or maybe with my next book I can incorporate " : A Book" into it somehow to create "My Brand New Book: A Pretty Decent Book (if you don't mind me saying)."

Anyway, what I've decided to do in the interest of beautiful blog posts is to shorten any title that is way too long, leaving only the essential bits for your consumption -- or just little ditties I make up. I figure if you're really interested in one of these books, you're only a few clicks away from Googling it. Also, that's my rationale for not listing full names of multiple authors and editors. So here's what my list this month should look like:

Adverbs - Daniel Handler

Seven Seconds or Less: The 2005 Phoenix Suns - Jack McCallum

Friday Night Lights - HG Bissinger

The Sword and the Chain - Joel Rosenberg

The Heir Apparent - Joel Rosenberg

The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

McDonald's: Behind the Arches - John F. Love

The Search: How Google... - John Battelle

The Chess Artist - J.C. Hallman

Out of Control: The Rise of Neo-Biological Civilization - Kevin Kelly

Cultural Intelligence: People Skills for Global Business - Thomas/Inkson

Soon I Will Be Invincible - Austin Grossman

Stuff I've Been Reading 2

BOOKS BOUGHT:

• A whole bunch of stuff on Amazon; too many to list here

BOOKS READ:

• Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain
• This Is Not Chick Lit: Original Stories by America's Best Women Writers - Elizabeth Merrick
• Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street - Michael Lewis
• King Dork - Frank Portman
• How Sassy Changed My Life - Kara Jesella & Marisa Meltzer
• Skin Deep - Karol Griffin
• The Princess Bride - William Goldman
  

It's really hard to talk about books. I mean, with something like movies, it's easy to go over major themes, which scenes you liked, the work of the actors and/or the directors. But talking to somebody about a book is kind of difficult. Generally speaking, after explaining "What's it about?" the conversation ends because all you can really do is wait for the reply of "Okay, that sounds awesome, I'll read it." This is mainly true of literature and fiction books. Non-fiction books tend to lend themselves to discussion much better.

I've figured that out after many book club meetings, where invariably, the best meetings (meaning the most animated and free flowing discussions) are during the non-fiction months. It's just hard to explain why you loved certain parts of a book without referring to the source material constantly. And people are here to talk, not to be read at.

With that in mind, if I were to put together my ultimate one hour book club meeting, I'd format it something like this:

• Start with a quick vote of who liked it and who didn't so we know where everyone stands.
• Recap what happened in the book because chances are, half the people in attendance didn't finish the book.
• Have someone knowledgeable lead a quick run through of major themes, characters, points of interest. Like you would have in English class. I want someone to bring some literary heft to the table.
• People can bring up questions and points of interest, perhaps referring to a quote or part of the book that really struck them deeply.
• Discuss the author and the work as far as their style and historical placement. Or fun facts about the author that might lend some perspective to the novel.
• Plan to go see the film version; or discuss who should be cast as the main characters. Never skip this portion of the meeting, it's key.
• Have an email list (or blog) that allows a lead up to the actual physical meeting. Giving people a chance to communicate about the book beforehand is useful and some people are more comfortable articulating themselves online. Plus, it fosters more in-depth communication because people can take their time to read, reflect, and react.
• Everyone should bring in or discuss what they've been reading that month. After all, a book club isn't just about the book of the month, but connecting with people about reading in general. Show me your books!

As much as bibliophiles love books, it's just hard to talk about them sometimes isn't it? Maybe books by nature are supposed to be a solitary experience but once we've encountered something great, don't we want to share and talk about it? I sure do.

Stuff I've Been Reading 1

BOOKS BOUGHT:

• Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made - David Halberstam
• Let Me Tell You a Story: A Lifetime in the Game - Feinstein/Auerbach
• The Princess Bride - William Goldman
• Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times - Kevin Smokler

BOOKS READ:

• Playing for Keeps
• Let Me Tell You a Story
• Firstborn (Dragonlance Elven Nations, Vol 1) - Thompson/Carter
• Children of the Mind - Orson Scott Card
• Black Hawk Down - Mark Bowden
• About a Boy - Nick Hornby
  

Here's what I've been trying to figure out: how much should a book budget be? This past weekend I exited a bookstore with product in hand for the first time in months and it felt wonderful. The problem was, it also cost me $50 for four books -- two of which were in the bargain bin. Nowadays, that's just about a gallon of gas but still, books (especially bad ones) have a short shelf life. A fifteen dollar book will last what? Four to six hours?

I would like to set my book budget at $200 a month but when I stop to look at that number, it's the same amount as a month's worth of insurance, bills, or car payments. Let's say I make two thousand dollars a month, that figure would then represent ten-percent of my income. If I flipped that into a Roth IRA, I could be a millionaire in forty years or something.

But it's so much fun to buy books isn't it? Sure the library is cheaper and semi-convenient but the selection is never what one would like. Although I've heard that some libraries have organized themselves bookstore style, which seems like it would be pretty awesome.

The point is, how much is buying new books worth to me? Ten percent of my paycheck per month? Should I look for other (stimulating) alternatives? Netflix provides unlimited movies for a mere $20 a month; Internet is around the same; after fixed costs, a videogame is the most economically efficient form of entertainment around. So again, how much is literature worth?

My number one criteria for buying books for their retail price (in a bookstore) is re-readability. Am I likely to read this book multiple times? Then I should buy it. Also, is it a book that should be in my collection ten years from now? Auto-buy. The last kind of book I'll purchase in-store is one I just happen to stumble upon and don't have the patience to wait for it post-Amazon. These are often the dumbest buys of all time because it's like committing to a girl after the five minute meet and greet; totally hit or miss. Sometimes you have to judge a book by its cover (or blurb or title) right?

Since the basketball season's starting, I was forced to buy the Halberstam and Feinstein book just to gear me up for the Celtics' championship run ahead. Princess Bride made the cut because I've been told it's a true classic. After purchasing Bookmark Now and opening it up, I realized that the editor, Kevin Smokler, was on Lilly's pitch panel for the Ann Arbor Book Festival we attended in May. The local bookstore and my book life is starting to collide! It must mean I'll soon be a real author. Yes!