The new thing in my life right now is that company, in the form of various friends and relatives, will be flowing in and out like waves at the beach until the middle of July. Our friend Chris got here yesterday, which was his birthday. This morning while he was reading the book we got him for said birthday, I started reading Nick Hornby's The Polysyllabic Spree.

This was a book that came in the mail a few days ago, for free, because I bought a subscription to the Believer...because I felt, I guess, that it was time John and I subscribed to a magazine. I'm not sure why, but in the moment it felt very mature and somehow solid, as though we'd be forced to not move again for a while so we wouldn't have to change our address with Our Magazine. (Why getting a CA driver license didn't give me that feeling, I'm not sure.) Also, I never seem to read as many books as I feel like I should or as many as I want to. Many of these writers (like Nick Hornby, though I've read all his novels already) appear in McSweeneys, but it's expensive...so we got the Believer, which has cool people show up in it, too. Basically the idea is that if I don't read all that many actual books, at least the magazine I thumb threw at night will have more of an impact. If I can't read more books, I can at least read about books.

So, I started reading my "free gift" of Nick Hornby...who just may be the funniest man on the planet. Except for John.

Of course.

Anyway, Mr. Hornby writes this column for the magazine that apparently is going to keep my husband and I in California for at least 10 issues in which he discusses the books he buys each month versus the books he actually reads. There's this one section though, where he talks about looking around at what books people are reading by the hotel pool when he goes "on holiday" (he's English) to see if anyone is reading one of his. I just thought that was so interesting...mainly because I read his first two novels while "on vacation" (I'm still not English).

I read High Fidelity in London during my "study abroad" month. And I felt like crap in London--lonely, depressed, directionless...pretty much like I do now, only I was thinner then and now I get to see John all the time. The movie version of High Fidelity played an interesting role in the ending of the relationship I had before I started dating John and in the book Why Girls Are Weird, which (even though I didn't really like it) kind of inspired me to start this website. Anyway, I felt like crap in London and I would lay on my little bed in the Kings College dorm and read High Fidelity on the days I couldn't make myself get on a bus or train to some sight somewhere.

I read About a Boy while on a trip to Chicago with my mom. Probably the point in our relationship where we started acting like two adults talking to each other as friends...rather than one adult and a moody teenager.

I read How to be Good, too, but I wasn't on vacation...and I don't remember reading it as vividly. Mr. Hornby has a new novel coming out in June, which I plan to read, too. But I seriously doubt I'll be on vacation. And we all know I can't move.

Labels: books., company.

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