Literary Pursuits, again
Great article!!!!!
(turns on light, dusts off WordPress)
You still here? Wow…thanks for hanging!
I love my library. I haven’t read this much in ages. I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since I started going there. I let the reading slip over the holidays, but now I’m back in full force.
I dragged myself through The Darwin Conspiracy. It bored the living hell out of me, but I finished in December. A month later, I can barely remember the plot, it was that memorable.
I also finished Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking and while it had interesting anecdotes on how people make snap decisions in milliseconds, it never told you how to harness that ability, or how to practice it. It merely was a bunch of case studies. And a lot of repetition. Ever watch “Police Squad” on TV? At the end of each episode, Drebin would remark that the perp was on his/her way to “county jail, along with (here he’d list every perp from the prior episodes).” Blink reminded me of that, because of the constant referring back to previous chapters’ examples.
Then, in a continuing quest to screw with my brain (like listening to NPR on the way to work and conservative talk on the way home) I checked out both Sham : How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless and 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying by Suze Orman.
SHAM was a great read — it talked about the backgrounds of the self-help gurus, and why the industry relies on people NOT being helped. It did much to cement my distrust of Dr. Phil, John Gray, and Dr. Laura. And Suze Orman, which is why I returned her book without reading it.
Now I’m reading Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. I’ve been trying to check the book out of the library since summer, and I just this week found it on the shelf. I’m finding out that I much prefer non-fiction to fiction.
And in more literary news, I’m happy to announce that thanks to Ani, I’ve accepted an editor position at All Things Girl magazine. My section is the “Mind and Body” section. The first issue I worked on is being released tomorrow. Naturally, I hate what I wrote. But practice makes perfect, and I’m thrilled to be doing something creative. I can warm up my writing chops, AND correct other people’s spelling, which is just hot.
Speaking of hot, Robert Scorpio is back on General Hospital, a soap I haven’t watched in over 15 years. He’s older and grayer but is just as sexy as he was when I was 12. I’m DVRing the episodes.
Time to wash off the face mask. Good to be back to blogging.
Ooh, I’ve got “Freakonomics” on my to-read list too! (Actually started it a few weeks back, but got distracted as is my wont. 2006 has, so far, been a really lousy year for me reading-wise.) And a magazine gig? Excellent! (Is that a new job or a side thing?)
I heard Rick Springfield was going back to General Hospital – was that his character? I admit, I kind of like his music
The magazine gig is an unpaid side job. Basically a way to indulge my creative side and actually write coherent pieces. Maybe next month my piece will be coherent. 😉
Rick Springfield is actually back on General Hospital too reprising his role of Dr. Noah Drake, brain surgeon. Scorpio’s played by Tristan Rogers. “Working Class Dog” was one of the first albums I owned!
Quite a moving unwanted-facial-hair memoir.
😉
You can’t say I wasn’t original! I didn’t have much time between when I accepted the post and when I had to submit, so I repurposed something that was to be a blog post someday. I didn’t want to scare them off the bat with tales of the vile goddess Menstrua.
Great article!!!!!