Yes, Smeds, I know what you mean.  It's especially that way with BOOKS -- the real concrete physical item.  I read too many newspapers, too much on the Internet and sometimes (often) my books get the short end of the stick.  I really admire Amanda's ability to read-read-read dem books and keep reading more!  Not sure but she could win the prize for the best read Gazetteer.

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

If I can't get into a book, I stick it on my "need to read" shelf and walk away with another book instead. Then I'll come back for it later. I absolutely refuse to not finish a book. Even the worst book I've ever read in my entire life (Hemlock Bay by Catherine Coulter. I burned it when I was done, it was THAT bad) I kept reading until I was done. As far as being too busy to sit down and read, that's when I just carry my latest read with me everywhere. Even to the toilet if I have to. I find that I read a bit less nowadays than I used to, but if I don't get in that "pleasure reading" to balance out all the academic reading I do, I'll go mad. It's rare that I get frustrated when I can't get back to a book I want to read, because I've been known to give up precious hours of sleep just to knock off a few chapters. :)

I just grew up being taught that reading was one of the most important things in our lives, and there's no such thing as boredom when there's a book in the house. :)

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

I am reading Children of Men by P D James, these days.  It's better than I had expected.

-cg

Last two books (audiobooks):

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon - Reportedly the basis of the next Coen Brother's project, this novel is excellent, spinning an alternate history where a Jewish settlement is established in Alaska. I had to refer to wikipedia a few times to follow the story, but enjoyed it. Chabon is my favorite contemporary author, his prose is delicious.

Occult America by Mitch Horowitz - I was expecting something different here, "occult" including more new age and astrology and not enough hoodoo, and Masons kind of stuff for my taste. Worth a look if you're into "Coast to Coast" subjects.

 I heard Chabon on Fresh Air about a week ago, promoting his new (non-fiction) book about fathering. I've read Pittsburgh, Kavalier & Clay,  Gentlemen of the Road, and the show made me think "you know, you've never read The Yiddish Policeman's Union, mental note, put it on hold."  So thanks for the double reminder. But it will be in line behind Jonathan Lethem's Chronic City.  I heard him rapping on the radio recently, too, and the excerpts he read sounded fine.

     "Perkus, tell me what's going on."

     "I'm trying to reconstruct an epiphany."

     "An epiphany?  I thought you had a headache."

     "I don't know if the cluster's passed, but I had a great ellipsis a few days ago, between episodes, really revelatory.  I couldn't do anything about it then, I was so fucked up.  I could barely walk for two days at the peak, Chase!  The blot on my vision was like an elephant in my apartment this time, crowding to the edges of the room, I felt like I could stroke its pebbly hide."  He spoke in a feverish rasp, all the while concentrating on piloting scissors to free a few sentences from their surrounding page.  "Then the epiphany came, I could se everything, the whole landscape at one, like it was lit by the moon.  This enormous undescribed thing in every detail, I have to get hold of it while I can, I don't know how long I'll be allowed this time."

     "Get hold of the epiphany, you mean?"  The Venn diagram of ellipsis, epiphany, and episode of cluster was already too much for my mind's eye.  I feared what I would never again dare suggest:  that it was All One Thing.  The pebbly hide of the elephant and the moonlit landscape, the first so close it was oppressive and useless, the other so distant he'd never reach it even if he grew wings, One and the Same. 

     "Yes." 

Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon (audiobook)

I have been reading Crash by JG Ballard, a book I bought when then movie came out and then never got around to reading.

-cg

I admit I didn't read a whole lot in LA. Not really a reading town.

But I have to jump on and sling some dirt at Jesus-freak Anne Rice. Angel Time had a strong start and then got all Mel Gibson without the gay SM (because that would be too much like The Vampire Chronicles.) Soooo dull! Even Cry to Heaven and Belinda were works of art compared to this- is like reading what someone wrote while drunk or high. Only she is tripping on Jesus. God damn this book, I am taking it back to the store.

Finished Looking for Calvin and Hobbes by Nevin Martell.  No relation to Pete Martell; Pete's meandering stories are more interesting.

Nevin digs up some interesting business-related material from Lee Salem (Bill Watterson's editor at UPS), and finds a few other people to interview who say a couple of interesting things apiece, but otherwise he mostly talks about himself and how Watterson isn't talking to him, and drops a bunch of clunky cultural reference that will age really well.  Often it seems like he wishes he was writing another book about music, he veers in that direction so often.

I kinda don't get the purpose of this book.  If you're obsessive about C&H/Watterson, it's worth borrowing or stealing, but for don't pay good money for the hardcover.

Renn was an unsuccessful contract teen model in the early 00's and, like many high fashion models, suffered from a deadly eating disorder. When her body rebelled and she put on weight anyway, related to age and physiological survival responses to extreme dieting, she let go of her compulsion, recovered her health and mind and became the first plus size supermodel.

Refreshingly, it's not psycho vegan propaganda that perpetuates the slanted interests of the CDC, and it's not a fat-pride book backslapping a specific audience, while just as full of misinformation as the former genre. I'd like to see this book in the hands of a lot of high school girls who are fixated by body image issues.

Kevin, I'm going to ignore that prayer comment, because that's like someone saying they made me an imaginary birthday cake. My life is richer without the arbitrary morals and rules that govern your world. Sex workers are not bad people or hellbound victims; they just have a job that flouts conventional norms.

(Incidentally, models dying of anorexia and the risk of depression in a job that mandates self-loathing is a lot more contemporary of a cause that your youtube video about retro porn deaths.) And it's a waste of time to get offended by language--- (OSF, that goes for you, too, you grammar-spelling-semantics-syntax Nazi! ;) )

Angel, you are so adorable.  This may scare you, but you remind me of me before I became radical for Jesus.  People would try to get me to read the bible and I would tell them I didn't want anything to do with the damn book!  I was thinking of moving to Vegas to make porno movies.  Anna Malle invited me and she said she would introduce me to people in the industry.  Also, Troma was wanting to look at a screenplay I had written.  But two weeks later my life was totally changed and turned around. 

I don't think people in porn are bad people.  I don't know what gave you that idea.  Some of the most loving people I have ever met have been strippers and porn stars.  But making you a birthday cake is good idea.  I may do that.  Just praying for you because I love and care about you. 

Found two great hardcover  books at the local thrift store for 50 cents each recently.  Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys and Michael Chabon's Summerland.  Zoomed through Anansi Boys in a few days.  I love the way Gaiman tells a story, his mixture of mythology, fantasy and screwball English humor.  This story starts with the "death" of Mr. Nancy (the West African spider god, Anansi)--from a heart attack while singing in a karaoke bar in Florida.  One of his sons is the rather clueless Englishman, Fat Charlie (who isn't actually fat...) the other is a demi-god called Spider.  Charlie only learns of this brother after his father's death...and so the wild adventures begin.  It was hard to put down.  Forget Avatar,  a movie of Anansi Boys would be a wild ride.  I read on Gaiman's blog how he was approached about a movie, but the movie guys wanted to change the lead characters from black to white, or take the magical elements out entirely.  G. told them forget it, he didn't need the money.  

So now I'm into the Chabon book, which is so similar---this time it's three young kids from a losing baseball team who are called to be heroes in another world's battle to stop coyote from poisoning the well that nourishes the World Tree.  Chabon takes more time with his story, but just as humorously.  I'm impressed with how each of Chabon's books I've read enter completely different worlds, and have such different and distinctive voices.

Tearing Down The Wall of Sound : The Rise & Fall Of Phil Spector...Mick Brown

A biographical account of Phil Spector and his insane life and career.

I can recommend this highly...it was hard to put down and I was repelled/fascinated all at the same time.

Someone should make a movie about the man...imagine the scenes we'd get!!!!

Please don't patronize me, or anyone else that you don't know, in public forum, with your sanctimonious tone. I said that porn people aren't victims, and don't need saving- unless you can provide them with a shitload of money.

I have read the Bible. It didn't wow me. There are starving homeless people in my city, and yours. Pray for them-- better yet canvass for them, like I was doing in LA. I am A-ok.

Oh, reading Jenna Jameson's bio now. Fantastically filthy and lurid, but what a powerhouse! What gonads!