Last Night I Read A Damn BOOK
I came home last night with a new friend -- the computer headache. The computer headache is a large gerbil that lives right behind my eyeballs and snores very loudly. When he rolls over in his sleep, it makes my eyes bulge.When the headache gerbil's thrashing around, pretty much the last thing I want to do is sat back down at home and write another brilliant piece of electronic navel-gazing.
So you know what I did instead? I read a damn BOOK. VARIOUS books, actually. I've found that I can simulate rapid-fire web browsing quite well by simply making a big sloppy stack of newspapers, novels and comic books and fluttering right through the pile. It's great!
I'm pleased to report that Bill Bryson's new memoir is spit-your-coffee funny, and Y: The Last Man continues to thrill and entertain.
The best thing about reading some damn books is that nobody's trying to flex their social agenda in them. When you close a book for a minute and come back to it, nobody comes and scribbles catty things under a poorly veiled pseudonym in the margins. There's not much authorial infighting, and when I read say, Ken Kesey, never roll my eyes and think "what kind of a profession have I gotten myself into, where ADULTS act like this!"
And you don't get that weird headache, either. Try it tonight, people: real books by real writers. There's nothing like it in the world.
posted by Jeff Simmermon @ 8:52 AM
8 Comments:
i love books. i'm currently reading less than zero by bret easton ellis.
i have this habit of getting really stoked on books and buying like 10 and then taking a year to read them all. i think have 3 more from my last spree to read.
Reading books is the new Web 2.0.
I know exactly what you're talking about. I hate that brain drain feeling. I make a point of reading for at least half an hour before I go to bed. It's relaxing and soothing. I'm reading 'I Am Charlotte Simmons' by Tom Wolfe and I'm hooked.
Another symptom of the Internet with regard to books: I can't read just one. Right now, I'm partially into three, and thinking about starting a fourth. What will happen when I can't concentrate long enough to feed myself?
I read books, too. Love Bill Bryson.
But I love blogs, too. If they annoy me, I just move to the next blog. It's freedom of speech in electronic action.
But I love books. Books are good.
Oh, good, I'm glad Bryson's latest is another good one. I'll make a point not to drink coffee while reading it.
I'm reading The Epicure's Lament by Kate Christensen - excellent, snarky, sleazy, misogynist hero trying to smoke himself to death. It'll be #110 for the year, but I buy too many or my identity simply wouldn't work, would it?
i love bill bryson too. he never fails to keep me up all night. i usually try and read his books in the privacy of my room because it's too awkward explaining loud resounding laughter-that-originates-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach to a quiet and often grumpy audience.
the latest book though, was funny but SCARY.
'I Am Charlotte Simmons' by Tom Wolfe is the longest horrible book I've ever finished. It was so bad I wouldn't have finished it, but I kept thinking, there's gotta be something that's going to pull all this crappola together at the end and make it all make sense.
There isn't.
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