Slowly, slowly she putters away at her book stack

I'm still working on three books, hindered only by exhaustion and a weird summer schedule. Actually, come to think of it, there are quite a few obstacles putting a damper on my reading time, but I'm doing my best to circumvent them.

Shopportunity by Kate Newlin, an advanced reader which has a September '06 release date, has been captivating me, today. That's right, captivating. I'm not kidding. Who'd have thought that a book about shopping--describing the reasons discount stores have yanked away the thrill of the hunt--could be a fascinating read? Newlin has me looking around my home, pondering the junk cramming practically every corner. Oh, my gosh. What a tacky cesspool of cheapness. What a ponderously mountainous mess of unnecessary trinkets. What a tragic homage to the cut-price and pointless. What a disaster of epic proportions!

Maybe it's not quite that bad, but my home is certainly anything but classy. This has sparked a minor cleaning and throwing-away frenzy, which son #2 keeps interrupting by, for example, flinging a cup of milk such a tremendous distance (due to fatigue, not intent) that I have to empty our spare kitchen cabinets, purchased at the very classy IKEA, and shove them aside to clean the milk beneath. Life is definitely interesting.

I'm also still hacking away at Brief Encounters with Che Guevera by Ben Fountain--another advanced reader--and not because it's a difficult read. The stories are simply so thought-provoking that I feel obligated to set the book aside after each short story and let them roll around my brain for a time. Ms. Bookfool is predicting Brief Encounters will be a hit with book clubs in a few short months. We shall see.

Off to shove the IKEAs back against the wall and attempt to rid my world of the tacky. Happy Reading!

Clutterpated Bookfool