LBJs

*Novel report: I'm over 29,000 words with nine more days to write. That leaves me about 6000 words behind. Since I'm doing about a thousand words an hour, and I'm now done with classes for the rest of the month, I think I can make up the difference during my Thanksgiving break. I'm definitely learning something about the creative process that I'd forgotten, which is that self-discipline can come in some awfully bizarre forms. But hey, if it works, it works.

*My class schedule is changing slightly in the winter trimester, I've learned. I'm switching from a schedule of three English 500 Drama sections and one Beginning Speech section to a schedule of one English 500 Drama section, one English 500 Honors Drama section, and two Beginning Speech sections. It adds a preparation, yes, but it also give me a chance to work with some very bright and dedicated students, which balances things out a bit. Moreover, my total student load this trimester will be roughly two-thirds the size of my load from the fall--and that definitely makes me a more cheerful guy.

*I've just finished reading my 100th book of the year--a new record. Actually, since I start my reading list on my birthday, March 1st, it's the 100th book I've read in the last eight and a half months. My previous record of 99 was set in 2001, and coming so close to triple figures but falling short left me good and surly, let me tell you. I'd read dozens of Animorphs books that year, which inflated the figure a bit, but I still felt as though I could have legitimately strutted around if I'd made it to a hundred. What I didn't know then, of course, was that getting a sabbatical for three months provides an enormous boost to one's time for reading. I haven't finished that many books since school started, but the spring and summer months were a literary gobfest that made the brunch buffet in the dining hall look positively wambly by comparison. Since I've got the rest of November and all of the next three months to go, who knows what number I'll eventually reach? I do know that I'll be ecstatic to reach 104, signifying an average of two books a week. For an English major, it doesn't get any better than this.

*The 100th book in question--you knew I'd get to it eventually, didn't you?--is a delightful offering from Paul Dry Books, and I deliberately put it aside so it could be my record-breaker. Written by Mexican author Gabriel Zaid, it's entitled So Many Books, and is a brief (144 pages) and pithy musing on the nature of books, publishers, and readers in this age of unparallelled opportunity for reading. Even The New Yorker took a look at it and gave it a mention, which makes two NYer appearances for PDB in the last year. (OK, so mine was in a Barnes & Noble ad supplement, but that should count for something, right?) It's the kind of book, like Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris, that belongs on the shelf of everyone who loves books. If I tell you that it's the best thing Paul Dry has published yet, will that get you to run out and buy a copy? Good. Because it is.
9:22 PM

.................................