Friday, January 28, 2011

Pre-Birth Culture Panic

In addition to the stack of four or so parenting (and pregnancy and birthing) books we've accumulated, I've finally gotten back into reading actual novels again. Part of the exercise was brought about by having to fly (nothing better than an iPod and a book for such an occasion ... well, unless you have an ereader ... but all things in due time), but mostly because once I got into it, I realized how much I missed it.

I pretty much hate TV. It's such a time suck. Such an overwhelming waste of time. Sure, there are films and programs that I'm consumed with, but aside from re-runs of "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Portlandia," lately it's left me pretty much bored to tears.

So almost a year ago, my dear friend Diana gave me Patti Smith's Just Kids for my birthday, which she also was awesome enough to have signed by the author at a reading she'd attended. I dug into that a few months back and somehow got sidetracked.

Then I bought Gary Dell'Abate's memoir, They Call Me Baba Booey, for Brian around Christmas, which he read on vacation, and on the flight back from our vacation he finished it.  I'd also gotten David Sedaris' Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, A Modest Bestiary at the airport in Tampa (which was short but cute, and I fully intend on reading it to my son) and finished it less than an hour into the flight back home, due to delay after delay at the gate.

So I started in on Baba Booey's book.  Which was really, really good. And inspired me to take Artie Lange's Too Fat To Fish off the bookshelf (where Brian had it stored) and dig a few chapters in.

Then I find out that Patton Oswalt has written a book, so I go pick up Zombie Spaceship Wasteland today and am currently halfway through the first chapter.

I also still have Wallace's Infinite Jest partially read from oh-so-long ago.  (Have I mentioned how overwhelming of an undertaking reading this book is?!) 

So here I am again. With four books started; all of which are very well written and compelling on their own merits ... but it begs the question, "Do I have enough time before this baby gets here?"

10 weeks (or less) and counting ...

1 comment:

  1. Geez, I wish I had the attention span to read like that. I've been working on Dracula since Halloween. And I've been halfway through Trainspotting for about 6 months now.

    Tv is an enormous timesuck, which is why we only pay for Netflix and stick to PBS for late night programming. But you know what's so much worse than cable? Playing a full game of Civ on the PS3 like every single day. Pathetic, really.

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