Books...

I finished writing about the books on my bookshelf and got so bored with the last shelf that it looks like this on paper: Webster's New College Dictionary - Will in the World - In Cold Blood - Goodfellas - The Diary of Samuel Pepys - The Elements of Style - Peace Like a River - Blue Like Jazz - Bird by Bird - The Great Divorce - and more...

I come up with a lot of bad ideas. I sat there on my couch with my weighty pen in hand scribbling down the names of the last books on my shelf as quickly as possible so it could all be over.

During the exercise, or whatever you are supposed to call this, I noticed that I haven't forgotten much from the books I have read, but I remember most where I read each book, where I bought it, and where I was when I finished it. This is why: because finishing a book, regardless of whether I loved it or not, will always be one of the best feelings for me.

The Lord of the Rings - Read and finished while on vacation in Manhattan Beach, CA (August '02).

The Hobbit - Christmas present - '01 - Finished at a hotel in St. George, Utah, that week.

Ghost Soldiers - Read and finished during a recruiting trip to Cal State Bakersfield (July '01).

The Broker - Bought it at DIA and started it on the flight to London, but didn't finish it until February.

Tribulation Force - Never finished. It was crap.