Much Better

1. The Complete Poems, Anne Sexton
2. On the Road, Jack Kerouac
3. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
4. The Sonnets, William Shakespeare
5. Le Morte D'Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory
6. Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami

It was pretty good, don't think there were any major deviations between the movie and the book other than changing the setting (America from London). There's an element of passivity to the character that I find mildly irritating, possibly because it's a trait I share. I like to think I would never end up like that character, but I suppose I shouldn't judge. And in the end, there is character growth and development, which is hopeful.

I'm enjoying Kafka; I think I was weirding Stef out a bit with my reading habits last night. See, when I read something a bit more metaphysical or abstract, I like to take periodic breaks to let the words soak in, think about the imagery and what might be meant, etc etc etc. So as a result, I would read a chapter, put my bookmark in, toss the book down (sometimes literally) and lie there thinking thoughtful thoughts for a bit, which I think she took as irritation/frustration with the book. Quite the opposite: when I'm irritated or frustrated with a book I either put it down and don't pick it up again or it takes me forEVer to read, like, a page - typically I'm a pretty quick reader. There's actually only one book this has happened with: Ulysses. It just sits there right by my bed, mocking me with my inability to finish it. Every now and then my memory lapses and I pick it up for another attempt, only to abandon it yet again when it gets too dense and just plain old boring, and I usually have to compensate by reading some fluffy fantasy book. I think I've tried like 6 or 7 times now to read it. Maybe this is the year I'll actually make it through, who knows.

Don't really have anything to do today; school starts up again in a week so I guess I'll just soak up all the vacation time I can now. Maybe I'll go fire up Love Actually in a bit.