More About Ants and Reading (as different topics)
It's hard to feel good about yourself when every time you walk out the front or back door you see a giant pile of ants staggering around in crooked circles. Whenever people charge me a large sum of money to solve a problem I've diagnosed myself on a matter I have zero experience with I'm always worried I'm getting hosed. Not this time. I didn't realize there were piles of giant ants living around the front door or back door. The ants I was calling about are (were) on the side of the house. How close they came to conquering us.

The sun is out but I see clouds and I have some work to do out there so I'm going to cut my planned post short.

I finally finished my book, Annie Proulx, Accordion Crimes which brings me up to 4 for this year.

Years and years ago I started a notebook where I write authors, titles and notes about books I wanted to read. Most of them come from book reviews but also from recommendations, best books lists and books mentioned by guests at Arts & Lectures.

This morning I went through the notebook to see if any titles sounded good right now. I also make notes if I decide not to read the book. Maybe I picked it up at the library and decided upon closer inspection that it doesn't look like something I want to read. Or I make a big check mark if I've read it and write what I thought of the book which ranges from "awesome!" to "okay" to "dreadful."

I found that Entertainment Weekly was consistently unreliable and even the starred reviews were books that I could barely hold in my hands for 5 pages. Esquire Magazine once printed a comprehensive list of books everybody should read and most were literary classics but the kind of literary classics that you've barely heard of and I was rarely tempted by the list.

After I finished Accordion I started a book called The Leopard which I've seen mentioned in The Week numerous times and so far I like it. That should keep me busy until I have time to go to the library with my new list.