The time to make up your mind about people is never.

Reading Zadie Smith's book of essays, Changing My Mind, is an inevitable way to feel like an idiot. That's not a complaint. It's like talking to the smartest person at a cocktail party, making mental note after mental note of books to read and movies to watch, all the while nodding as though you've already read and seen them, and being sure to get her phone number so once you've caught up, you can hang out and hope to be as cool and smart as she is. Therefore, it is unsurprising that you recommended me this book, Sarah. However, I could not disagree with Zadie Smith more when it comes to Shopgirl. I love that movie and am not ashamed of my sexual attraction to Steve Martin, so I therefore can understand Claire Danes'. Especially when her last date was with Jason Schwartzman who suggests a baggie when nobody has a condom. But anybody who shares my love of Katharine Hepburn and especially The Philadelphia Story does have soooome taste in movies, I must admit. Overall, I couldn't appreciate every essay of Smith's, but I look forward to pulling it off my bookshelf as a reference once I've read more of the books she discusses.

Seriously. She wore a feather boa.

After seeing the travesty that is the movie version of NINE, when I started reading Love and Obstacles and realized it was a string of short stories about a Bosnian man growing up in various countries and becoming a writer, I was a little hesitant. No more self-referential or self-congratulatory or self-anything stories. But then I started to read it and my biases slid away. The portrayal of displacement and detachment from home is poignant and each individual story becomes more powerful in the company of the other stories. It's almost enough to wash away the image of Daniel Day-Lewis trying to dance or Judi Dench wearing a feather boa. Almost.

Aeroman Lives

How does someone write a book like Fortress of Solitude? Do you just put pen to paper and people spill out or do you know these people in your head somehow? In 509 pages, Lethem has created several indelible portraits of people I feel like I know. I can't believe it took me so long to read this book, but I'm so glad I read it now, because reading it in New York gives me an extra appreciation for Lethem's insane attention to detail. And reading it at this point in my life gives me an extra appreciation for Lethem's understanding of the constant see-saw of power in those friendships we carry from childhood onward. Even for those of us whose differences aren't quite as massive as Dylan and Mingus', there's a recognition. I finished this book this morning, but I don't know that I'll ever really be finished with it? This one sticks with you.

Waste of Oxygen

In the past two weeks, I've read two books about really smart people making historic contributions to modern society: Free For All about Joe Papp and the Public Theatre and The Audacity to Win, David Plouffe's book about the Obama campaign. Both are fascinating tales, moving and powerful, about brilliant people doing brilliant things.

And then I realized I spent approximately twenty five minutes dissecting favorite episodes of "Saved by the Bell" yesterday with my friend's new boyfriend and I wonder....what will the book about me say?

Welcome back, Sarah! YAY.

House of Mirth

I bought this book at the half-price bookstore in my hometown last May and gave the first 50 pages or so a desultory look-through before going back to being distracted by the internet. I finally picked it up again a few weeks ago, tired of the guilt I felt every time I saw its unbroken spine on the shelf. Finished a few minutes ago and now I'd like to go to bed please, pull the covers over my head and listen to sad music until morning. 

I have a bad habit of getting so deeply involved with the characters of well-written novels that my identity begins to merge with theirs. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Actually, isn't that the reason people read? For a momentary respite from the daily tedium of life inside our own bodies?  Wharton's writing is so clean, the edges so crisp and well-defined, that once you decide to give yourself over the world she creates, it becomes impossible to get away until she sets you free. You're stuck in Lily Bart's hot fever dream of a life as she descends from New York society queen to...something else . For those of you, like me, who managed to avoid reading this book through high school and college I don't want to give away the ending. Think of it as an episode of Gossip Girl where the stakes are way higher and everyone is smarter and more evil (though I imagine Blair Waldorf could hold her own in this set without a wrinkle of either perfectly waxed eyebrow). Depressing though it is, this book is worth reading if only for the chance to get to know the original mean girls while engaging with a great artist at the height of her powers. 

Things As Elegant, If Not More Elegant, Than Hedgehogs

-cappuccinos with the copious amounts of foam
-when the subway and I reach the station at exactly the same time and I don't have to wait
-ny times sunday magazine
-gummy vitamins
-when Sarah calls while I'm grocery shopping and I get the combined happiness of talking to Sarah and finding instant oatmeal on sale

Books That Are Very Important Capitalized

I was in the midst of reading one Important Book (The Mayor of Castro Street) but that wasn't enough, I was too impatient to start on the Important Book Du Jour, Eating Animals. It was an upbeat two weeks.

The former is a phenomenal read. The best class I took at Northwestern was Gay and Lesbian History because its history we're a part of and I find that fascinating enough to outweight the cheesier implications of such a statement. The latter...as someone who has been drinking all that Kool Aid and then some, I enjoyed it, but anybody else would be better off reading the incisive New Yorker review of the book. For those of us who don't eat meat and like skinny jeans paired with Converse, Eating Animals is a great read. for the rest of the world... you should probably just re-read Everything is Illuminated.

Also, I'm not giving up on you, Sarah.