Sunday, June 22, 2014

Advantages of Summers in Cedar Rapids

Namely, the ability to visit Iowa City once in a while. Well, not so much Iowa City as Prairie Lights and The Haunted Bookshop. Because books.
In particular, I made a point of picking up a copy of Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. I already have a copy, but it's an eBook. I thought I'd save money that way. I had forgotten to factor in the fact that trying to read Infinite Jest on an eBook is a horrible life choice because it's so ridiculously dense. I also happened upon a copy of Doctor Faustus. Which, as I am looking the book up on Goodreads to link, I have now realized was not the book I had wanted to buy. Silly me; I had actually been looking for Doctor Faustus. Can't imagine how I'd ever make that sort of mistake. So, instead of an early-17th century English playwright's rendition of the Faust myth I get a mid-20th century German's rendition of the myth which focuses heavily on contemporary (for when the book was published) German social issues... You know, I actually am kind of happy I made that mistake.
Also, while I'm on the subject of my stumbling in book buying, I managed to finally find a copy of Pscyho. And, while I was browsing the horror section for some comfort-reading material (like you do) I saw a copy of Hannibal. As I was already picking up a classic horror book successfully turned into a movie that's probably better remember, I figured I'd pick up the other one. Only to realize that there's also a book called The Silence of the Lambs which comes before Hannibal in the series. Fortunately, I managed to snag a copy of that as well. I did not, however, realize that those were the third and second books respectively, and the first book (Red Dragon) did not happen to magically appear in my possession before I left the store.
So... Reading. Yeah. Gonna have to do some of that.

-Patrick

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