Summer Reading

My life has become all about books since I started working at the library three months ago. I leave work after each shift with no less than three or four or more books - subjects I want to know about (the lives of Chinese factory workers), need to know about (health, digital video editing), and all those classics (Dave Eggers and Alan Watts) that I wished I had read as a dumb twentysomething.

I'm physically bringing my work home with me. It took just over a month to hit the 50 item check out limit. My dining room table is buried. It's as if I'm at the library even on my days off.

In the interest of having a clean house, however, I need to stop hoarding soon. But for now, I'll continue to alternate between my two checked out copies (print and audio) of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (book discussion at the end of the month) and then onto whatever next awaits me.

A brand new book I just finished (and returned) and highly recommend is Peter (son of Warren) Buffett's Life is What You Make It. Not only can you judge this book by its crisp little cover, but the title pretty much sums it up while the book itself gives you the common sense to actually follow through and make it happen. Whatever your particular "it" might be.

Across the Universe in Tampa

Growing up I had a typical but terrible case of a condition I dubbed "all alone in the universe." (Actually I wasn't able to really shake myself out of it until I was 30.) I occasionally take a step back into it when I think of the horrible sides of humanity - wars, greed, people not taking care of each other. What really saves me are the signs I now see everywhere: a passage in a book:

"Just what should a young man or woman know in order to be "in the know"? Is there, in other words, some inside information, some special taboo, some real lowdown on life and existence that most parents and teachers either don't know or won't tell?"

Sharing one of my favorite movies, Ghost World, with my husband, only to discover that one of his favorite documentaries, Crumb, was made by the same director.

And all the links to people we know around Tampa Bay. For example, Ronny wrote a song about the little known wrestler Gorgeous George (whose antics inspired many well known athletes and performers) several years ago. Coincidentally, Gorgeous George recently got his first biography by Tampa resident John Capouya, professor of journalism at the University of Tampa. On Monday he leads a free discussion on his book at the Reeves Theater at 6 p.m.

With people like this in the universe, how can one ever be alone?