Books
and records
20 April, 2000
The only music I've been playing lately is this CD by Belle and Sebastian - "If you're feeling sinister". Two, three times a day I'll listen to it.
Some albums will hit you right off. Bang. They seem great at first listen and you're right into it immediately. Often these are the ones you tire of more quickly though. What once was so right, now sounds a little tired.
I think the albums that move me the most are the ones that take a while to get into. The ones where you listen the first time and think, "that's not bad, but it's not great." But there's just enough to make you listen one more time, just to see. So you do, and it gets a little better. And each time you listen, it makes a little more sense, until suddenly the album starts to soar and it's all you want to listen to. This album's heading that way.
Debbie's lost amidst the Harry Potter series of books. A friend bought her the first one last weekend and it was finished the same weekend. She bought the second book on Monday and it lasted until last night. She's just started the third book tonight, curled up on the couch. I love seeing her absorbed in reading like that. She gets a lost look in her eyes, and will bring up a finger and trace it across her lips absent-mindedly. She doesn't read enough for pure pleasure, but it's hard to do when you've got a thesis still hanging over you.
One of my great dreams would be to have enough money to just buy any book that took my fancy. For some reason I don't enjoy reading books from the library as much as ones I've bought. I guess I hate giving them back. I like the thought of owning the book, adding it to my collection, going back and re-reading it.
I always check out people's book and music collections when I visit them. It's a quick guide to reckoning thier coolness! "Oh my god, they've got a Supertramp record — danger Will Robinson, danger!"
Me, on the other hand, I always put my big, but still unread, Philosophy books to the forefront. The Basic Problems of Phenomonology anyone? Dunno what it's about, but it sure looks good and intellectual sitting there. All shiny and unread.
Still, I guess there's always next weekend to find out. This weekend I got Harry Potter waiting for me.