Tuesday

I’m back, I suppose. Let’s not make a big production out of it. There’s no real reason the site’s been blank for a while other than lack of motivation on my part. No big deal. Maybe the curve is trending back upward now. Maybe it’s not. Who knows?

Don’t read anything into it. Life’s just sort of neutral right now, which is pretty much the way I like things. Let’s break the ice with a reading list. Here, in no particular order, are the last several books I’ve read. Don’t judge.

Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville: I’ve already reviewed this one. Highly recommended.

Iron Council, by China Mieville: Not quite so good. A slog, essentially. I hate invented science fiction jargon unless it’s exceptionally clever and well-timed. In Perdido Street Station, such was the case. In Iron Council it’s not. Mieville’s worth another shot, however, so I’ll try his other one, the name of which escapes my motivation to look it up on Amazon at the moment.

Rebound Rules, by Rick Pitino: Yeah, whatever. We can all use a little motivation. My stance on self-help books is that the most important thing they can tell you is to copy people who’ve been successful at what you’re trying to accomplish. That way, you can refine what they do and potentially make it better. That’s about all I ever get out of these things.

Number9Dream, by David Mitchell: This was actually pretty good. It’s kind of a Murakami knock-off, except it’s not a translation so the writing’s better. I’ll be reading some more of Mitchell’s work.

Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger: I read it every few years, and its number was up this year, so I read it again.

The Given Day, by Dennis Lehane: Yikes.

The Reagan I Knew, by William F. Buckley, Jr.: Come on, now. My aunt gave it to me for Christmas.

The Steelers will win the Super Bowl, but they’re lucky the Patriots didn’t make the playoffs.