the summer reading rampage continues in the wake of infinite jest, and now i’m on to the corrections by jonathan franzen, which is turning out to be really great. i’m very into it at only a quarter of the way through, so i will deliver a fuller opinion in a week or so. i had just finished nick hornby’s how to be good before i started this one, so i can deliver a complete verdict on that one.

the thing is, i’m a fan of nick hornby, and i’d say that high fidelity and about a boy, movie adapted as they may be, are two of the better books i’ve read in the past few years. they were just so insightful and pulled me right into the heart and mind of those characters. i was right there with them and i felt the heartbreak.

with how to be good though, even though i’m a fan, i can admit i was let down. it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t on a level with the others. i just didn’t feel myself really caring about the principle characters, and it wasn’t nearly as funny, and although it raised some good points and questions, i didn’t feel the same moments of dawning agreement with his quirky observations. so since all that was why i liked the other two so very much, well, this just didn’t do much for me. i’ll definitely give him another chance though, whenever that is.

the next problem, of course, is having extra money around to buy more books to read. after this one, i think there’s only one unread one sitting around the bookshelves. taking a month and a half to read one 1000 page volume will get you used to not needing a book budget for a few weeks, but i’d say in about 15 days i’m gonna be bone dry for reading if i don’t scrape something up soon. not that i don’t have a long list of things i’d like to read, it’s more about buying those and still having money left to live my rock and roll lifestyle. it’s times like this when i wish i had stock so i could hope it went up.

[now hearing this: burning airlines – mission: control!. and the thing is, it’s so good i can’t really talk about it.]