"The Smoky Arrangement of a Set of Rumors"

So I've had 4 cross-country flights in the last 2 weeks which  has allowed me a lot of quality time to focus on reading while tuning out the bromance relationship therapy session going on in row 24 behind me or the increasingly intoxicated (and increasingly chatty) lady in seat 23E next to me. I flew through the rest of Tinkers and made it a good portion of the way through Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. Positive progress!

I'm not one who usually takes book suggestions from people (I apologize to my sister Amy who gave me The Help like a year ago and it has been sitting on my bookshelf since then...great movie though). There's something pleasant to me about going into a bookstore with no idea in mind and rummaging around the tables and shelves, looking at covers, jackets, titles, reading the backs of books. There's something that feels organic about this process, like I'm finding something unique (I won't however, go into exploring the billion dollar industry behind crafting the covers and titles that contribute to me picking that book leading me to believe I found it all on my little own).

I'm thinking however, that I should probably start taking people's advice, because my own methods have not been leading me in the best direction, particularly to books with a very strong, and often disturbing, theme of death. Even when I don't really know what the book is about, or when I don't think the idea of death as written in the book will affect me as dramatically as it does. The last 4 non-list books that I've read (Tinkers, A Spot of Bother, The Unnamed, and The Road) have all left me reeling. The Road messed me up so much I've become a hoarder of canned goods and the option of building an underground bunker somewhere so I don't get eaten is still very much on the table.  

In my defense, when I bought Tinkers, there was actually no description of the storyline on the back or inside of the book, so it was a pretty blind purchase. The woman who rang me up actually asked me what the book was about and if it was supposed to be any good. "I don't know" felt like kind of a dumb answer. But the story of Tinkers centers around a man who is in his last few days of life, and while he is in hospice care in the living room of his own home with his family nearby, he remembers stories of his father (as well as some brilliantly written hallucinations).

It was the details of the last few days of his life in his home that were the punch in the gut, only because they hit close to home. And reading the details written by someone else that are so very similar to my experiences (particularly the pink lollipop sponges and just wanting him to drink water thinking that was the remedy) reminds me that so very many people have had such similar experiences with loved ones passing away. Which somehow makes my own experiences feel cliched and typical, and reminds me that so many of us will meet our ends in the exact same way.

While I'm not one to shy away from reading books that make me uncomfortable or that challenge me to face things that I may not always want to think about, I think I need to just take a little break from my overdose on heavy duty topics in the books I'm choosing to read. Smaller doses would be sufficient I think. So bring on the lighthearted, breezy ("Now she sounded breezy!") book recommendations please! I think I need them (but if you recommend 50 Shades of Grey I'm going to block you!).

I have 6 whole days off next week going up north, where the sole mission for the week is to do as little as humanly possible except for eating, drinking, reading, sitting in the sun, or any combination of the 4 (I see drinking + reading + sitting in the sun being a popular combination). So hopefully I'll finish Moll Flanders and move on (I think Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad will be up after that). Ciao.

Dog Days of Summer Olympics

I'll admit it. I've been horribly distracted by the Olympics. Those sneaky mofos at NBC have figured out the best algorithm for ensuring that you're tethered to your television from the entire hours of 8 pm to midnight. Lure you in, have some good stuff mixed in with the lesser known sports, hold off for the final showdowns until late in the evening, and before you now it, the whole night is blown. So unfortunately, reading has taken a backseat to sitting on the couch watching people kicking ass in sports (yes, instead of being out there actually kicking ass at doing sports).

Progress: pg 113/191 on Tinkers. Hope to have it done by the end of the weekend. If I can prevent getting roped into track and field. But that damn steeplechase will lure me in every time! I'll keep my fingers crossed and my tv off.