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	READING			READING NOW
	i used to read one book at a time. i used to read that book in a very regimented manner, like fifteen or twenty five pages a day, depending on how simple or dense the writing. i used to set a schedule and track my progress making it so i knew when i should be done with the book and if i completed the book as expected. sometimes i finished on time, and other times, i never finished at all. the never finishing at all business bothered me. like a lot. i found that a slow moving or not right for this moment book could stall my reading, all my reading. i knew changing the book might clear the block but consequences loomed. this is the ocd side of me. while this quirk sometimes debilitated me, other times, lots of times, my quirk helped me over many of life's saw horses. i needed this to be one of those times. so, i made a small tweak to my reading routine (somewhere along this journey, i stumbled upon the bionic power of small properly-placed tweaks). instead of focusing on one book, i now read four - six books at a time. and instead of reading in a genre rotation like i once did (e.g. fiction, history, literature, non-fiction, psychology, fluff, repeat), i read all genres at once. and instead of reading for a set amount of pages per day, i read for a set amount of time, thirty minutes. when the reading window comes up, i set the timer, pick one of the books from the currently being read stack, open to the bookmarked page and collapse into another person's world and experience. now when i stall, i stall for bigger, more meaty causes, the sort of things one should set their book down for. not just because the lead character in the book blows or the author and i aren't jiving at the minute. this i can live with.			Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein Wherever You Go There You Are Jon Kabat-Zinn Bleak House Charles Dickens Stumbling on Happiness Daniel Gilbert Endurance: Shackletons' Incredible Voyage Alfred Lansing Mindset Carolyn Dweck
	READ BEFORE	BOOKS FROM : 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
		Catching Fire Suzaane Collins 11.2012 when bella saw me nearing the end of this book she quaked with excitement. she said there was a great cliff-hanger at the end and i would have to start the next book immediately. to say the least i surprised the girl by not sharing her ravenous review of the conclusion. and in looking at the last few books i've read, i can easily name this my greatest reading slump in over a decade. not sure what is going on but i need a fix. link to this review
		The Girl Who Played with Fire Stieg Larsson 10.2012 this book resembles beavis and butthead in that too much of the style and you feel your brain start to gelatinize with every page turn. at present, i don't see book three in my future. link to this review
		The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 07.2012 this book sat in my to be read stack for many months. bella placed it there along with an unhealthy need that i read it. picking it up and studying it i asked her about the story. she told me. i handed her the book back explaining i wanted nothing to do with a book that pitted children against one another. she pushed the book back towards me and said it wasn't that bad and the story was great and i just had, had, had to read it. so i read it and it turned out to be less evil than it could have been and more enjoyable than i expected it to be. link to this review
		Tom Sawyer Mark Twain 05.2012 i don't know that i ever fully read this book when young. some of the early stuff felt vaguely familiar but much did not. while it's a great story i'm left thinking two things. one, i think i enjoyed the descriptions of old america found in main street by lewis more than twains. while this is a great picture of a young man's life and you get some of the peripheral landscape, i felt like lewis drew a deeper picture of the whole world your were peering into. secondly, based on some small examples of heard about, i think i might enjoy twain's personal writing and letters more than his novels. i will get to verify this shortly as his autobiography is on my shortlist. link to this review
		The Streets of Laredo Larry McMurtry 04.2012 i can't tell you how bummed i was to learn that lonesome dove was the third book in a series (only after i read it). this is book four. given that its the wind-down of the series it comes with a touch of sadness, but it's still quite great (and a great wind-down to a four book series). i'm eager to crack the first two books as i'm definitely left wanting more of the interesting characters McMurtry dreamed up here. link to this review
		Akira (Volumes 1-6) Katsuhiro Otomo 03.2012 I'm by no means a graphic novel guy, but in the name of experience, i like to give all sorts of storytelling a shot. this was touted to me by a few souls as one of the best ever comic/manga stories. i picked up the first volume and got pretty sucked into the world. i know the purist say black and white is the way to go but i think i touristy enough to say i would have preferred a colorized version of the comic. link to this review
		The Hamlet: A Novel of the Snopes Family William Faulkner 02.2012 anyone who ever aspires to write a novel should never read faulkner. i can't imagine still having the gumption to try after seeing him bend the language. link to this review
		Aging Well George Vaillant 01.2012 i've always had mixed feelings about aging. one side of me bristles with the anticipation of untold possibilities. the other side of me trembles with the anxiety of untold possibilities. whether it's finally securing that job you've been chasing or being told something has gone wrong with some needed part of your body, the days in front of us are rife with mystery. the stories and ruminations found in this book have allowed me to come to better terms with what's ahead. largely due to its emphasis of the importance of the now, and how the now is, obviously, so connected to the future - your future. of course you have to set worrying about possible illnesses and catastrophes to the side (it's not healthy to carry around such hefty luggage you may not need). but there are surely things, many things, that can be done to mitigate some of the bad stuff potentially ahead. partly through this book and partly through my own discovery, i have found myself becoming more excited about aging (where previously i greatly feared what it had in store). now i'm ravenous for the boons of wisdom that comes from better understanding your mind, your body, your family, your society, your purpose. the only requirement for collecting this reward is a fair bit of reflection and introspection - which so sadly seems to be hypersonically becoming a lost art in our frenetic culture. in short, we are all going to age. there are things that can be done to improve our chances of making the best of things. it reminds me of the words of Gale Snoats, john goodman's character in raising arizona, when he said, "This'll go hard or easy, H I." it turned out to be true for H.I. McDunnough and it will turn out to be true for us as well. link to this review

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