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March 14, 2000
Too many books!
Barry Manilow is performing a private concert... in my head. "At the Copa, Copacabana..." Stuck in my head. All day so far. Can't shake it.
I have far too many books to read. I faced the facts earlier today, and returned some of them -- the ones I really wanted to read, but knew I'd never get around to. I had over 50 checked out from just the MIT Libraries -- I managed to weed it down to 28. I don't work in an interesting library (well, it isn't interesting to me, anyway -- management and political science. Yawn.) The thing is, people drop off books from the Humanities library here, and the books look interesting, so instead of sending them on their merry way, I check them out to myself. And the stack grows and grows...
I'm reading "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers, for Beth's book club -- it's an excellent book. It reminds me a lot of Douglas Coupland, but the writing style is a little tighter. (If that makes any sense.) It's the type of book that makes me miss my stop on the subway. I've been sitting at my desk trying to figure out some way of sneaking the book out of my bag and reading it on the sly... oh, the irony of not being allowed to read in a library!
Next, I have Douglas Coupland's "Miss Wyoming." I'm a huge Coupland fan, in spite of the nauseating "Gen X" thing. I met him at a reading once, and he was so pleasantly weird... I gave him a little silver policeman's whistle, which seemed to make him very happy. He made a point of having a conversation with everyone who lined up to get their book signed (this was for "Microserfs," so it was a few years ago) much to the annoyance of the bookstore staff.
I also have "Motherless Brooklyn." All I know about it is that it centers around a detective with Tourette's. That, and I read a few pages over someone's shoulder on the subway, and it looked really good.
Someone dropped off a book here today called "A White Bone." The story is told from the point of view of an African elephant. That could be good, or it could stink -- I was intrigued enough to add it to the pile.
Damn. Thinking about books makes me want to go read even more. What I really need is a week off, to do nothing but sit and drink tea and read. I'd be happy with that.
What are you reading? email me and tell me about it. (Incidentally, if you're worried that I'll be annoyed if you email me, I won't be! I'm an email junkie. I love getting email. And I try to be good about replying. Personally, I hate it when I email someone and they never reply, so I try to at least say hello back. So really, email me.)
Posted by Mary Ellen at March 14, 2000 11:49 AM