Another Week Down

i'm not really sure what direction this blog entry will take me. it hasn't been a particularly interesting week but my mom requested an update so i am going to deliver. unfortunately i am having a difficult time coming up with a theme.

i've spent this week trying to get through Michael Chabon's the final solution. 131 pages of relatively large type and i still couldn't do it. i no longer force myself through books that don't grab my attention and i think this will be added to the list of those that are returned to the library unfinished. also on this list is Christopher Hitchens' love, poverty and war. he is a fine writer and feels passionately about certain topics but there were times during my abridged reading of this collection of essays that i felt uncomfortable, and i wasn't exactly sure why. i saw him give part of an interview on TVO last night (thats a hard-core friday night eh!) and realized that i think he is a cock. so it may have been that.

one of my literary disappointments this week was going to the library to collect a book i had put on hold called this is serbia calling. Nick Hornby had recommended it and the disappointment lay in the fact that the only copy available through the toronto public library was actually in serbian.

but i have done some other stuff this week. more interesting stuff. on wednesday i met up with shannon, taryn and james for dinner. we went out for thai and were one of the first parties to show up and one of the last to leave. we had a great night just catching up and having a squawk. well, james didn't really squawk so much as just listen to us and enjoy! i hope.

it was really nice though. as of yesterday shannon is officially done with the practice of law! i am so proud of her and her ability to balls-out create a totally different path for her life. we were going to go out and celebrate with her last night but she ended up having a late dinner with kr, my buddy brian from work came over, and we never made it out. oops.

anyway, i'm going to go out and grab some breakfast. coffee and a globe! i've got a day ahead of me.

and mom, if you want to know whats going on with me, and i haven't updated the blog, feel free to call.

A Quiet Weekend of Contemplation

i'm wrapping up one of those rare weekends that are now few and far between. taryn went to kingston after work on friday leaving me with two days of solitude. the enormity of the situation immediately drove me to the bottle. i called adele and we headed out on the town. we hit up a couple of places before going to the rivoli to play some pool. i am a diabolical pool player but apparently, after a few drinks, i am the master of the fluke shot.

i enjoyed the weather saturday morning as i walked around the neighbourhood completing errands. on a whim i picked up a couple of books at the library, based entirely on their aesthetics, then did some grocery shopping and holed up in the house with a big cup of coffee and read the globe and mail cover to cover. i put on garden state, not to watch but for the background noise, and worked on the crossword. not very exciting but surprisingly nice.

one of the books i took out of the library was called the polysyllabic spree. i found the cover interesting and the resemblance of the title to the polyphonic spree struck me as interesting so i thought i would give it a go. knowing nothing about its contents i was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually a compilation of magazine articles chronicling the book buying and reading patterns of the author. the author, as it turned out, was none other than nick hornby, and the periodical he was writing for was the believer, the magazine published by mcsweeney's.

it was one of those rare books that i couldn't seem to put down. i generally enjoy nick hornby's writing but this one was particularly identifiable. perhaps its because i also chronicled my book-reading for a year, although i never had the room or the disposable income to purchase mass amounts of literature. nor have i ever been able to write something concise and eloquent that would appeal to the masses. but this book left me inspired to try.

i found this collection both comforting and frustrating. there are so many books that i want to read, that i know i should read, but haven't gotten around to yet. and in the grand scheme of things i still have plenty of time. i'm young and literate so i guess the world is my oyster but by the end of the polysyllabic spree my holds list at the library had grown exponentially and i realized that i'll never actually read all this stuff. but does it really matter? probably not. hornby is a professional writer who can, theoretically and legitimately, devote days to reading and writing, whereas i am a lowly wage-earner doing my best to keep my mind active on my off-time because i am no longer allowed to use the power of independent thought during my working hours.

so i guess thats it then. i will do the only things i can: read what i want to read, write when i feel inspired, and do my best to balance that with a proper life that includes going out, seeing people, and actually doing stuff. eloquent eh?