For the past two weeks I have been trying to narrow down the list of books I simply must read this year.  I get super excited at the prospect of starting to read a new book.  Oddly enough, ever since I began working at a publishing company my personal reading time has exponentially diminished.  I'm not letting that fact bring me down, though.  So, I have decided on a few books, but I would like recommendations, too.  

So, without further ado, here is my short list for books to read:

Absalom, Absalom, William Faulkner

Home, Marilyn Robinson

All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy 

The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker

This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (can you believe I have never read this?)

Anna Karenina, Tolstoy

"For without risk, there is no faith, and the greater the risk, the greater the faith; the more objective security, the less inwardness (for inwardness is precisely subjectivity), and the less objective security, the more profound the possible inwardness"   

---Soren Kierkegaard

Hello!  Why aren't you dating anyone right now?

This is a question that young, married women have on the tip of their tongue in every possible situation.  Whenever they sense a single twenty-something girl walking within a certain distance of them, the phrase will automatically spill out.  Obviously, since these women no longer need to find love for themselves, they find themselves with an abundance of "mate radar," but alas, they have no use for this God given gift.  

Since I spend 95.9% of my time with young, married women, this is a question that has presented itself quite a few times in the past few months.  The greatest part of this questions is that it always presents itself within the first few sentences of a conversation.  Most often than not, a conversation will pan out in this way:

Young-married-lady-"Hi!  I'm 'enter suburban sounding name here'!

Me- "Hi, nice to meet you."

YML-"So, are you seeing anyone?"

Me-"Not at the moment."

YML-"Why aren't you dating anyone right now?"

Me-"Umm, well, I didn't know it was up to me, uh...I don't really know.  Yeah."

Why aren't you dating anyone right now?  Oh, silly me.  I didn't realize that it was all up to me.  Tomorrow, I will wake up and say, "OK, self.  I want to date right now."  Not exactly.

Also, what are the expected answers to this posed question?  Over the past few weeks I have wanted to deliver ridiculous answers.  Some of the answers include, but are not limited to:

1) I can't date anyone right now.  I have mono.

2) I'm moving in a month.

3) I have 6 months left to live. 

4) I hate men.

5) What's the point of dating?  My dog keeps me company, and I can buy my own chocolate.

I am open to suggestions. 

 

Suns or Mavericks?
90's Mariah Carey or current Mariah Carey?
Uncle Jesse or Uncle Joey?
fly or drive?
shorts or capris?
Def Leppard or Poison?
Mac or PC?
chocolate or vanilla?
Europe or Hawaii?
baseball or basketball?
Crash or Capote?
Miles Davis or Louis Armstrong?
Sprite or Sierra Mist?
MacDonald's or Burger King?
Mulder or Scully?
Playstation or XBox?
The O.C. or Laguna Beach?
eBay or Amazon?
Spanish or French?
Chris Farley or Mike Meyers?
Gone With The Wind or Ben Hur?
Christmas or Thanksgiving?
friends or family?
spring or fall?
acoustic or electric?
high school or college?
east coast or west coast?
pink or red?
paper or test?
local or chain?
Steve Nash or Shaq O'neal?
Prada or Gucci?
Sex and the City or The Sopranos?
Home Alone 1 or 2?
North or South?
phone or e-mail?
Silence of the Lambs or Red Dragon?

i am only doing this so i can comment on someone else's blogspot site. my blog is www.xanga.com/death_cab_for_emmy