Okay, so I did actually read a few things, just not as many things as I wanted to, or not the things I wanted to. Or, rather, I didn’t have a lot of good ideas of things that I wanted to do except I didn’t really want to work or teach or grade or read books for school, so I started playing Metroid on NESticle, which was a total waste of time.
What happens–I think–is I get a certain amount of busy. I teach, I freelance, I try to work on my own stories and stuff, I produce the MSS, and at some point, I have so much stuff that I absolutely have to do right now–record and edit interviews, watch and brainstorm stuff for book trailers–that I stop doing any of it until the last possible moment before it’s due.
Which all gets pretty depressing. And makes me play Metroid instead of reading good books, which is the wrong choice.
WHAT I READ–
Variations on a Theme: So this was, possibly, the end of the short story collection binge I’ve been on. I finally read all of Jesus’ Son (what could have possible taken me that long? it took three hours) and I also read A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, which had two rockin’ first person plural stories in it, which now I get to steal for my class. I wish i could keep going (I started Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link, but have no idea when I’ll get back to it) but I’ve got Then We Came to the End in my way, and I’m not just reading that, I’m teaching it, which takes about a thousand years more.
School’s In. For. Autumn.: Finished my second read through of The Virgin Suicides, which is a beautiful, haunting, brutal book. A work of freaking genius. That guy’s got it, for sure. Also, would like to read Middlesex and The Marriage Plot, but no time right now. Maybe after the semester is over, although I suspect that by then I will have moved on to a new four-six book project (short story collections has been going for nine books so far, pretty good).
Screwing the Turn: Also read Ghost Writers: Us Haunting Them, because I was doing the book trailer. Steve’s story is by far the best in there, but there are a couple of strong entries. It’s been fun working on it. Here’s the video.
