Reading Update #7

In the bedroom: I'm about half way through The Last Colony by John Scalzi. I've been doing a lot of yard work this week, several hours at a time, which usually results in me falling asleep pretty quickly and not staying up until 2:00am to read no matter how much I want to.

In the downstairs bathroom: I'm reading AD INFINITVM: A Biography of Latin. So far it is pretty interesting, but not compelling enough to keep me sitting there reading until my legs go numb. So after almost a week I'm only up to page 46. If I don't pick up the pace, or shift the book to another location (as I sometimes do), I probably won't get all the way through it.

At the office: I started A Tramp Abroad on Monday. Even though I've only been in the office one day this week, so far (I'll be there tomorrow), I've gotten further in this book than in AD INFINITVM: A Biography of Latin. Of course the pages are smaller and the font is larger. And despite the small number laugh-out-loud passages encountered so far, I do find myself sitting there until my legs start to go numb.

In the car: While still waiting for A History of the English Language by Michael Drout I browsed the library over the weekend picked up, Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman, Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut (which I'm sure I haven't listened to before) and The Google Story by David A. Vise. The first two are pretty short so I'm starting with them. So far I am enjoying Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs immensely, even if I don't really agree with Chuck Klosterman on many of his points.

In fact, Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs is one of those books I read (or listen to) that cause me to realize, again, I will never be a writer. Besides having skill at writing I believe a writer also needs to have something to say; something they feel strongly about, as Chuck clearly does. Typically I find myself either with no strong opinion one way or the other about things, or if I do have a strong opinion, I'd rather not share it. This makes for a very dull writer. I find this trait even affecting my attempts at writing fiction as I often feel that if a character says or does something, people will assume that is something I want to say or do. Or have already done or said. I don't think this when I read someone else's work, I'm pretty sure Stephen King's basement isn't full of dead bodies, but for some reason I find it uncomfortable to do myself.