Books Acquired:
David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth, Paul Duncan
Shadow Ticket, Thomas Pynchon
V, Thomas Pynchon
Vera, or Faith, Gary Shteyngart
The Blacker the Berry, Wallace Thurman

Books Offloaded:
Fogtown, Peter Plate

Progress Made:
The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
V, Thomas Pynchon
Wampeters, Foma & Granfaloons, Kurt Vonnegut

Books Finished:
The Seven-per-Cent Solution, Nicholas Meyer
Fogtown, Peter Plate
The Blacker the Berry, Wallace Thurman

At some point this month I realized that I was in the middle of about a dozen books, and though it is Official Policy that this is allowed, it seemed like something had to be done. I swore, not for the first time, not to start anything new until I finished a few.

Well….

I was not actually permitted to finish The Crying of Lot 49, which is subject to a strict schedule administered by the tyrant Vortex. But I was enjoying it so much that, in one of those moments of insane optimism that guarantee that I will never get through my pile of unread books even if I live to be 1000 years old, I bought V. I’m about 100 pages in and making headway, but it was a foolhardy move to be sure.

Then it was my birthday — the Bowie book, which is thankfully all pictures, was a gift (thanks Sam!) — and a trip to Powell’s yielded Shadow Ticket (hot off the presses, Pynchon still cranking them out at 88) and Vera, which had been on my list since I heard an interview with Shteyngart on the radio a while back. Those will be queued up behind V, and here we run into the problem of Pynchon: I love his books but they are work. Even the relatively breezy Lot 49 requires a level of focus that is sometimes beyond me.

Well, fuck it; the gauntlet has been thrown and the moment must be met. I’m going to marshal my remaining brain cells and make it happen, Captain. I’ll be a lean, mean reading machine.

Starting tomorrow.