Has anybody read this? I’m interested in figuring out if this is worth the time and would love to hear your opinion.

Does it get better?

I’m 30 pages in and not loving it. This is the first Philip Roth I’ve read, the plot (as I understand it) is right up my alley, but I’m falling asleep every 5-6 pages. I was hoping for a contemporary version of Jack London’s “Iron Heel”. So far, the book makes me feel like a West Coast lumberjack 30 something, interloping on a New Jersey Jewish boomer dystopia.

I know this book is very highly recommended. It is also 85% boring and 30% obvious. I picked this book as the first of a 3 part self tutoring exercise to revamp my financial plan. Bad strategy. It’s not that the book isn’t full of reasonable information. The problem is that reading it is like gargling with molasses. Perhaps it has just been revised too many times. It no longer seems to hold any sort of narrative shape – each chapter seems like a too long ramble about another errant avenue of investing. When does the knowledge kick in? I think I’m stalled out on chapter 5.

My consumptions for January, 2006 was basically all over the place. If there were any big themes they were happiness and mental illness. I think what kicked it all off might have been the The Sunset Tree by the Mountain Goats. I bought the album for the song “This Year” which is good, but somewhat annoying. I then spent a weeks worth of mornings singing “I’m going to make it through this year, if it kills me”. It seems like that rolled around in my head for a while and influenced some of my media explorations this month.

I liked The Aviator more than I expected to. I didn’t expect to like it much, because I basically can’t take Leonardo DeCaprio seriously. I’m sorry – I don’t think it is because he is a particularly bad actor – it’s just that he seems like a fluffy kitten. But he does a good job in this account of Howard Hughes (who I realized halfway through the movie, after there were no printing presses, I was confusing with William Randolph Hearst). The one thing I had heard about the movie was that Jeff Bezos loved it – which freaked me out because Howard Hughes is a nutter – but I can see the admirable determination and zeal. So with a fine portrayal of paranoia and OCD, I found myself learning more about obsessive compulsive disorders in the “special features” section of the DVD.

I’m still only halfway through Nick Hornby’s Polysyllabic Spree which is entertaining and a model for the sort of monthly review of consumption you are now reading. I’m looking forward to learning more about Hornby’s habits and was moved by even the small mention of the mental disorders that impact his life. One was a quick mention of being glad to be a writer living in a time when the antidepressants are better and the drinking not so big a part of the craft. Interesting how these afflictions do touch those who write more than, say, tennis pros. Were that I were so droll or knew myself as well as Hornby. He’s a treat to read.

Perhaps it was that desire to know myself better expressed that caused my friend Chris to recommend Timothy D. Wilson’s Strangers to Ourselves. It too sits half finished on my nightstand along with 8 other books. “Strangers” is a bit of a precursor to “Blink” and once I started it, I realized I’d read about Wilson in Gladwell’s popular tome. It is a tale of the adaptive unconscious and it’s role in how we know ourselves. Self knowledge is an excellent topic and Wilson seems an able guide. I looking forward to getting the story down and particularly interested in the practical chapters at the end that outline some concrete ways to improve your knowledge of your self. I think it was when I started researching that book that I ran into Martin Seligman’s Authentic Happiness which I got from the library and have read the first 100 pages. It’s a sound if somewhat too cheerful book – though I’m trying to cure myself of bigotry toward optimists. The website that complements the book at http://authentichappiness.com is good – and I do hope to finish this book.

I’m not sure I can say the same for Andrew Soloman’s The Noonday Demon. It is a well written tour of depression – but man – I can’t take it! It’s just too depressing. I got turned on to it by Martin’s thoughtful review. I figured if Martin could be thoughtful about this surely I could too. I have already learned a lot in the first 200 pages. But picking it up again is harder than getting out of bed on these grey days. It’s due back at the library next week and I have a hard time thinking I’m going to buy it or finish it by then. Though I probably would do well to do so. Another library request I got around the same time is Peter Kramer’s Against Depression. For my constitution, this is a book similar to Solomon’s in some ways (informative, comprehensive) without the annoying melodrama (well Kramer has a sort of professional mini-crisis or too but that hardly compares to Solomon’s attempts to kill himself by contracting AIDS). I just got to the scientific half of Kramer’s book and I wish I’d started there. I think I’ll try for a renewal or request it again.

I’d probably be doing a lot better with my reading if I wasn’t watching LOST at night. Holy time suck. We have no TV in the new house, which is great, but I’m watching TV on my computer – which is foolish and expensive.

That’s most of my ALL OVER THE PLACE wrap-up for the month. I also watched that Peter Pan movie (that guy is a bit nutty too, but sweet), gave up on reading that Never Eat Alone book, finished reading Sophie a silly book about a Rabbit named Rafferty who saves his hometown from a gang led by a dasterdly Mink, finally watched Super Size Me, which was surprisingly good, and oh, I read a whole book about cunilingus. What? You think I’m trying to sneak that last one in? Well I’ll tell you the best idea in that book is expressed in the title.

Hopefully I’ll have a few more books finished and a few fewer started in February – and I think I see “happiness” as the emerging theme – a nice counterpoint to so much reading about mental anguish (tempered by frivolous viewing and the odd lascivious tome).

What’s up with the political philosophy angle to the names? We have a once crippled John Locke and a crazy French lady named Rousseau cast away on a tropical island. It is no coincidence. Is this just some nod toward social contract theory or is there anything more to it?

The chapter on wine is a kick – and had me ready to turn my basement into a vinter’s operation. Todd offered to loan me some of his equipment and told me I can buy grape juice, and thus avoid mashing with my feet or needing to order 2.5 tons of grapes. I learned my Mother (who gave me the book) also had met Angelo Pellegrini back in the day.

With Paseo closed for the Winter, the Drunken Chicken sandwich is sounding so good right now. Is the bread chewy? Yeah, it is called a baguette, and it is delicious. Is the chicken crunchy? Yeah, it’s been deep fried until it is delicious and then coated in spicy gooey goodness. This is not a sandwich to try and look cool eating – you need to wedge it together and go for it. And try the truffle fries and the beets.

Just over 15 years ago, during x-mas break from my first year in college, a bunch of friends headed off to see a movie in the snow. We caught a buss from Capitol Hill to the U district and headed to the Metro Cinemas. My pal Greg was super excited to see Goodfellas, as was his girlfriend Jill and our friend Mary. Anne wasn’t so excited, but I was excited to be hanging out with Anne. At the theater there Cinema Paradiso was also showing and Anne asked if anyone wanted to see it. Thank God for inventing the multi-plex.

I sat next to Anne through the movie and I even watched a little. I think I was too shy to even try and hold a hand – so I just stared at her. I’m sure this was annoying but just maybe slightly endearing. Looking back, I should have just tried to hold her hand or even give her a kiss. But that came about a month later – and 15 years later – I’m glad to be married to the raven haired beauty with whom I first watched Cinema Paradiso.

I got this off my wish list for x-mas and I am loving it. It is laugh out loud funny – I’ve been snorting my way through the first 40 pages – and I really think it is going to change my life. I’m serious. It was written by an Italian emigrant who moved to Seattle and became an English professor (I think I went to high school with some of his grandchildren, actually) and it basically explains why you should have a garden in your yard, cook simple good meals, drink wine, and take naps.

It rules.

This is perhaps the tastiest pizza like frozen confection I’ve ever tasted.