Blog Number 324

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

We had a great get together at our next door neighbor's house yesterday from around 2 until about 8.  Several other neighbors from our street were there along with friends of the hosts.  The July 4th get together was 2 doors down from us so I think (doing the math) that makes the next get together at our house.  Unfortunately the next holiday on the calendar is Halloween (which we typically do not celebrate).  Also, based on the amount of wine, mixed drinks and beer at the last two get togethers I think we need to start saving up in order to afford to host a party for our street.  The wife and I were talking over our coffee this morning and we decided it took us moving to Texas in order to make some true friends.  Back in Indiana, we had our family we could always rely on but here we have to rely on people who we have only known a year or two.  We decided it was a good thing.

We went to the Allen public library on Friday evening to return some books and check out some new ones.  Once I got home I started reading one of the 3 books that I checked out.  When I laid the other two books down on the bookshelf, I noticed all the other books with bookmarks in them.  Since then I have made a search of the house to see how many books I am actually reading concurrently.  Here is the list...

1. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis - I read this to the kids one chapter at a time on some evenings.  We are almost 1/2 way through the book (pg 95 / 217).
2. Couplehood by Paul Reiser - This was a birthday gift from my mother.  I am pretty sure she got it at the Goodwill store.  I am only a few chapters in to this one but it reads like a stand up comic routine so you can just read it a little at the time as each chapter is not necessarily based on the last.  The book actually starts on page 145 (it is explained in the forward as to why) but I am about 1/2 way through it (pg. 197 / 348).
3. Dogs Don't Tell Jokes by Louis Sachar - This is my 10 year old son's book and I am reading it so he can narrate to me after he reads it.  Louis Sachar wrote Holes (which was turned into a movie a while back).  I am about 1/3 of the way through it (pg. 72 / 209).
4. You, Inc. by Harry Beckwith - Another book from my mother.  I think she bought this one in an airport.  I have not read anything in this book for better than half a year but it sits in my back bathroom ready for my return.  I am about 1/2 way through it (pg. 170 / 316).
5. King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green - I might abandon this one actually.  I just can't get into it really.  This one is hard to read if it is not the only book you are reading as the names are long and hard to remember.  I am only about 1/5 of the way through it (pg. 71 / 330).
6. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings - Though I just started this one (it sits next to You, Inc. in the back bathroom) I really think I am going to like it.  Many of the books in this list (and many of the books in our house) are classics that we purchased for a ridiculously low price at the Half Price Books store.  In the last few months I finished 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Treasure Island and these were both books from that store as well.  Somehow I escaped school without reading either of these books.  As for The Yearling, I am only about 1/7 of the way through it (pg. 48 / 354).
7. History of the Millennium (So Far) by Dave Barry - Another "mom" book.  Back in Kokomo, the wife and I would take turn reading chapters of Dave Barry's books to each other.  We had to take turns because it was to hard to read while you are crying due to laughing.  This book is a few years old.  I am about 1/6 of the way through it (pg. 35 / 208).
8. Religious Literacy (What Every American Needs To Know - And Doesn't) by Stephen Prothero - I like to peruse the 200 section of the library (200 being the Dewey Decimal system number for religious books).  I enjoy reading how other people view religions in general and my religion in particular.  This one however better get interesting quickly or it might not stay on this list for long.  I think perhaps the 18 page introduction (where he describes what the book is about and why he decided a book like this needed to be written) was a little long.  Still, since I deal with many countries on a weekly basis (Malaysia, Egypt, etc) where the dominant religion is not Christianity I thought this book would do me well..I am about 1/9 of the way through it though I just got it from the library on Friday (pg. 27 / 233).
9. All the Names by José Saramago - I just returned Blindness by this same author and it was excellent.  Saramago has a strange writing style that involves such quirks as infinitely long run on sentences (I think one sentence lasted 3 pages) and the phenomenal lack in the use of quotation marks during dialog.  He also does not start a new paragraph when someone else starts speaking.  So you have these tremendously long conversations between two or more people (or perhaps a character and his conscious) that do not stop when the speaker changes and seldom us the "he said" or "she said" to indicate who is speaking even.  This was very annoying at first but the story was so good that you look past it.  They are making a movie based on Blindness (trailer is here).  Anyway, All the Names is the book he wrote after Blindness but even though I am about 1/2 way through it I think I will give up on this one.  I did check out the sequel to Blindness though (titled Seeing) so I hope to start it soon (what's one more concurrent book really?).

I wonder if it is strange to have 9 books going on at the same time in my head.  I would think that since people can juggle the ongoing plot lines of that many TV shows, that I could do so with books.  I am running a little low on bookmarks though.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon