Announcement: I have read BOOKS.

Yes, it's true. And not school-books, either; thus far i have completed two entirely unrelated books and am working on a third. they are:

Stupid White Men, by Michael Moore: I borrowed this from Andrew one night when I couldn't sleep and had nothing to do. He made a lot of good points about the crappiness of the Bush administration, but a lot of things about the book grated on my nerves. first of all he seemed way too hung up on the past election. i know the book came out more than a year ago, but still. also, he seemed a little too hung up on michael moore, the greatness of michael moore, the courage of michael moore in the face of adversity. i know it must be hard to write about yourself without waxing poetic, but he tries to make it all sound completely congruous.

The Rival Queens, one of the books i picked up at the real library. i read it last night; it was a historical mystery and one of those books i couldn't put down even at one am because i so desperately wanted to know who the killer was. it as set in england in 1700. the heroines are a down-on-her-luck countess, Lady Ashby de la Zouche, and her feisty maid Alpiew. They make money by writing for a scandal sheet, and wind up investigating a murder involving members of a popular London playhouse. There were a lot of twists and turns, and the Countess, who's kind of an old woman, is an amusing heroine, as is Alpiew. there's a lot more raunchiness in it than i was expecting, like a nighttime visit to a sex shop and the discussion of how to use a dildo, as well as homosexuality and STDs and men living with their dead stuffed wives. cough. i found it all fascinating.

The Monk Downstairs is what i'm reading right now. i had my my eye on it back in windsor but i never got around to it. it's about a single mother who rents her downstairs room to a man who's just left a monastery after twenty years. i think it will eventually be about their relationship, but right now she's just worried about getting through day to day, and settling for the small things in life rather than hoping for some grandiose future. it's kind of sad, contemplating the thought that some people just give up hope that things will ever be any easier. they just toil on, and on, and then they die.

the other book i took out is cat's cradle, by kurt vonnegut. his catch-22 is sitting on my bookshelf, after i only read the first few chapters. i also read slaughterhouse, of which i only remember that the first sentence says "the first words of this books will be (i forgot) and the last will be: "pootie weet". and indeed the final words were pootie weet. i also rememeber that he ended a lot of paragraphs with 'so it goes". i think the story was about a man traumatized by war, and his family just thinks he's crazy.

anyway, i find such joy in reading books. i can't believe i went almost two months without one! if anyone has some good reading suggestions, do pass them along. choosing books is a hazardous and time-consuming occupation.

oh, and since everyone else is doing a person-of-the-day, and since i am a complete sheep (baaaaa), my first cool person of the day is: wendy!! why? because we read the giant message board that had all these tips for getting along with your roommate, like not eating their food, using your headphones if they're doing work, not letting other people sit on their bed, etc, and realized that we never follow ANY of those rules. here's to living with one of my closest friends!!! :-)