Category: Books

Five-thousand pages in: Stephen King’s Dark Tower books

Once upon a time, I used to write 10-pages-in book reviews. I haven’t written one in a very long time, and a large part of the reason for that is that I’ve spent the last six months immersed in the seven books that comprise Stephen King’s epic Dark Tower series. I got the first four books for Christmas, and settled in to read them just after I finished the Phillip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy. (It was, in retrospect, apparently a dark Christmas.) It was prolly mid-January when I turned the first page of The Gunslinger, and I was reading book three, The Waste Lands, while waiting for the pitocin to ramp up my contractions in the delivery room when Lucas was born. I took a bit of a breather from reading for those first blurry six weeks or so of his life, and have been charging headlong through to the end of the series since then.

To steal a phrase: what a long, strange trip it’s been.

I loved these books. They moved me, they inspired me, and they gave me the creeping willies more than once. Hell, more than a dozen times. They also deeply annoyed me at times, and I rolled my eyes in exasperation in a few places. I don’t think anyone can maintain perfection through a full novel, let alone seven of them, but much like JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books, this series was on whole much more good than bad, and the characters and the stories both got deep under my skin and into my head. Especially as I rolled through the last couple of books, I frequently found myself wanting to reach out to Stephen King somehow — to e-mail him, to give him a call, to pace back and forth in front of his fence for a while until he came out for a bit of a palaver*. I wanted to know more, to chew the fat about these characters and this world, to have the chance to savour them just a little bit more.

So what are the books about? This dude named Roland, who lives in a world like ours but not quite ours, is on a quest to the Dark Tower. That’s it in less than 25 words, but it takes about 5,000 pages to get there. It’s about an obsessed man’s single-minded quest, but also about love and friendship and fear and some nasty things that make squelchy noises in the dark — this is, after all, a work by Stephen King. If you’ve read a lot of King’s books, you’ll recognize visiting characters from Hearts in Atlantis, ‘Salem’s Lot, The Stand and a whole whack of others. Towards the end, there’s a surprising homage to the Harry Potter books, and even King himself makes an appearance as a character.

As I’ve written before, I avoided these books for many years. I’d see a new Stephen King book on the bookstore shelves, and then sigh in dismay. “Ugh, another stupid ‘Gunslinger’ book. Bah!” and I’d turn away. In a way, I’m glad I was late to these books, as I truly loved being immersed in the world of the Dark Tower so completely, and for such a long time. The books are set, as I said, in a world like ours but not quite like ours. Eventually, we find out that this world intersects ours, and that there are innumerable parallel worlds (another neat crossover with the central idea of Pullman’s trilogy.) The story weaves back and forth through wheres and whens in this world and others. King has not only sketched a set of alternate universes, but has coloured and contrasted them with their own histories, customs and linguistic quirks. I think this was my favourite part of these books, how rich and textured the worlds are, and after a while it felt less like reading the books and more like inhabiting the worlds. You know how sometimes when you’re reading a fantasy book, it’s like there is a little bit of scenery sort of half-imagined directly around the characters like the shadow of a spotlight, but everything else is kind of hazy? I felt like I could crawl right into these books and the scope of the world(s) around me would just go on forever.

I was fascinated by the fact that this series took Stephen King the best part of his life to write. He started it in 1970, before Carrie was written or published, and finished it a quarter of a century later in 2003. I think that fact contributes to the sprawling, epic feel to the books. In a way, Roland the Gunslinger ages and matures in Stephen King’s real time. Time is major theme in the books, almost a character in its own right.

Stephen King says in the forward to the books that what he wanted to do as a young writer was get inside peoples’ heads. He’s always been able to do that to me, always been able to crawl deep into the tiniest hidey-holes of my soul and shine a light on the bits that I try hard not to think about. In the Dark Tower series, he’s done it again. It’s been called his magnum opus, and I can see why. As I paged relentlessly through the last book of the series, I watched the dwindling amount unread pages with dismay. Now that it’s done, I think I’ll head out into the interwebs to see if I can find a discussion group or fan site somewhere. I’m deeply hooked on Roland and his ka-tet and his quest, and not quite ready to give them up just yet.

*Actual goosebumps raised on my arms when I was reading the afterward to the very final book, and King spoke about how much he values his privacy and how he intentionally obscured details of his location even as he incorporated himself into the stories so as to protect his ever-eroding privacy. To me, it was almost like a personal “thank you” for not disturbing his privacy when I was stalking him that sunny Saturday morning last year. Chills.

Canadian Children’s Book Week

Did you know it’s Canadian Children’s Book Week?

I was looking for information about kids books for something meme-ish, and came across this list of 100 Best Canadian Books for Children, courtesy of the Toronto Public Library, but I have to admit that I’ve only read about ten or so of the books. Some of our favourites made the list, including Paulette Bourgeouis’ Franklin stories, Dennis Lee’s Alligator Pie, and Mordechai Richler’s Jacob Two-two Meets the Hooded Fang. (I read this when I was a kid, but haven’t thought of reading it to the boys yet. Hmmm. Note to self: would make a good Christmas gift!) And of course, we are Robert Munsch fans around here, particularly Mortimer, The Mud Puddle, I Have to Go, and Thomas’ Snowsuit — anything but Love You Forever, perhaps the most morbid and disturbing kids’ book ever written.

But in one hundred books, they didn’t find room for some of our very favourites. The boys adore Allen Morgan’s Matthew’s Midnight Adventures series, and they’re the kind of clever and funny books that I don’t mind reading over and over again. We got a copy of Barbara Reid’s Read Me A Book from First Words program when Simon was born, and we were instant fans, and Kerry gave the boys a copy of Reid’s The Subway Mouse. Also thanks to Kerry, we love Linda Bailey’s Stanley’s Party, a charming and funny story about a dog’s adventures when his people leave the house.

But truly, how could any list of Canadian kids’ lit overlook Roch Carrier’s The Hockey Sweater? It’s a national treasure! (Edited to add: a bit of a tangent, but if you haven’t seen it, you must click through and watch the short film based on The Sweater, courtesy of the NFB.)

So, it’s the gift-giving season, and what makes a better gift than books? Fill up our reading list – what are your favourite kids’ books? Bonus points if they’re Canadian!

One thousand (!)

Did you know that the letter A does not appear in the English spelling of any number lower than “one thousand”? Oh, the trivial gifts the Interwebs give to me.

One thousand. Like, a thousand words, or a Thousand Islands. Or, one thousand posts.

Yes, my bloggy peeps, this is my one-thousandth post. One thousand posts in not-quite 34 months. The mind boggles.

You know, I always wanted to be a writer, and I always knew that I had an easy style when it came to stringing words together — but I always feared I had nothing to write about. *snicker*

And now, in honour of my one-thousandth post, a couple of favourite subjects: Books! Memes! BOOK MEMES!!

(Thanks to Raising WEG, from whom I filched this one.)

This list is via the Guardian’s report of the top 20 books re-read by Britons. I’ve italicized those books I’ve read, and bold-faced the books I’ve read more than once.

  1. The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
  2. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
  3. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
  4. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
  5. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
  6. 1984 by George Orwell
  7. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
  8. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis
  9. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
  10. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
  11. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
  12. To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
  13. Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews
  14. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
  15. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
  16. The Bible
  17. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  18. Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
  19. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
  20. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Hmmm, so I’ve read a lot of books Britons like to read, but didn’t enjoy them enough to re-read them. These books, however, are the first five that come to mind when I think about books that I’ve read more than once, and sometimes more than twice:

  1. Contact, by Carl Sagan
  2. Generation X, by Douglas Coupland
  3. Who Do You Think You Are, by Alice Munro
  4. The Shining, by Stephen King
  5. Shoeless Joe, by WP Kinsella

What books have you found worthy of re-reading?

10-pages-in book review: The Reincarnationist

I don’t usually do sponsored book reviews as 10-pages-in reviews. I try to keep them distinct, partly so you’ll know books I’ve stumbled upon serendipitously versus books I’ve been offered to review, and partly because if someone is going to the trouble of sponsoring a review (in this case, MotherTalk provides a copy of the book and a $20 Amazon gift certificate) the least I can do is read the whole book before reviewing it!

In this case, I’m going to make an exception. I would have likely been curious enough about this book to pick it up on my own anyway. Plus, I didn’t receive it until a week or so ago, and quite frankly – I just haven’t had time to finish it yet! Right now, I’m about two-thirds of the way through.

After all that, on with the review. Today we’re talking about MJ Rose’s The Reincarnationist, a suspense thriller with a historical twist, akin to Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code meets Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian.

Photojournalist Josh Ryder witnesses a terrorist attack in Rome, one that kills a nearby security guard and nearly kills him as well. From that moment onward, he finds himself haunted by waking nightmares, visions and hallucinations he can’t explain. They are flashbacks to Josh’s prior life as Julian, a fourth-century Roman having an illicit affair with the last of the Vestal Virgins.

The narrative swings from Josh’s story to Julian’s and back again. As the narrative leaps from modernity to ancient Rome with stops in between, the reader is drawn deeper into a complex web of interlocking mysteries that include a modern-day murder and the theft of a set of mystical objects called Memory Stones, rumoured to have the power to help the holder know all of his or her past lives.

It’s an intriguing novel and I find myself becoming more drawn into it as the story progresses. I compared it earlier to The Da Vinci Code and The Historian, and I don’t think it’s quite as compelling or well executed as those two novels – although I can’t quite put my finger on the reason why. I wish I had a better feel for Josh – and for Julian, for that matter. I have neither a clear picture in my mind of the character, nor do I quite buy into his behaviour.

Regardless, it’s one of the better books I’ve read this year, an exciting story full of page-turning suspense. There are sinister forces at play, a likeable hero, more than a hint of romance, and a handful of mysteries to be solved. What more could you ask of a book?

What I am particularly enjoying, and frankly wish there was more of, is the philosophical examination of reincarnation. I’m ambivalent about the topic myself – I tend to agree with Hamlet, who said, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” So while I won’t discount reincarnation outright, I also can’t say I’ve ever been compellingly convinced of its existence.

I had never really thought before reading this book about why the Catholic Church has such a problem with the idea of reincarnation (I’ll paraphrase it to “we can’t leave the eternal redemption of the unwashed masses in their own hands; whatever will our priests do?”) and found the historical description of the evolution of religion in the early years of the Church quite intriguing. I wish I knew / remembered enough about history to know whether it’s an accurate portrayal.

With a full third of this book left to read, it’s just getting really good now, and I’m quite hooked. Divergent story lines are just starting to come together, and I’m curious to see how it all comes out. If you’re curious, you can read more about The Reincarnationist on author MJ Rose’s website.

So, what do you think about the whole reincarnation thing? Were you a peasant farmer or wealthy noblesse in a past life? Or is this your one and only kick at the can?

Dumbledore comes out of the closet

I can’t say I ever overtly suspected it, as that would insinuate that I had speculated about it. But somehow it comes as no surprise whatsover that JK Rowling confirmed on Friday night to a group of American fans at Carnegie Hall that yes, Dumbledore, the late, great headmaster of Hogwarts, was gay.

Asked by a fan if Dumbledore had ever himself fallen in love, Rowling replied, ‘My truthful answer to you is that I have always thought of Dumbledore as gay.” She goes on to explain that his one great love was Gellert Grindelwald, the wizard first befriended by Dumbledore and then, when Grindelwald turns to the darker side of the magical world, is eventually defeated by Dumbledore in a famous wizard duel.

Rowling said she first addressed Dumbledore’s sexuality while reviewing the script for the upcoming movie version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. “I was in a script read-through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying, ‘I knew a girl once, whose hair…’ I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, ‘Dumbledore’s gay!'”

I love this “revelation” as more than just a titilating piece of gossip. On one level, it’s fascinating that we are so captivated by this literary construction even after the last book is complete. But I love the new perspective this adds to Dumbledore’s character, too. I can’t wait to re-read the books (again!) with this nuance in mind!

What do you think? Did you see this one coming? Do you like the idea of an after-the-fact plot twist? Does it add to or take away from the story for you?

Edited to add: my bloggy friends have been having fun with this conversation. For a scholarly take on things, take a look at the links Veronica at Toddled Dredge has put up, and for the best t-shirt ever, plus a pretty funny YouTube offering, stop by Under the Mat Hat.

10-pages-in book review: Everything’s Eventual

It’s a bit of a challenge to write the usual 10-pages-in book review when we’re talking about a book of short stories. I’m about half way through this book, and I’ve consumed (it’s a deliberate word choice; reading Stephen King is a literary gastronomic delight for me) a little bit less than half of the stories and the other half remain unexplored territory. But I really wanted to write a post about this book because of the excitement and sense of discovery it has inspired in me. The book, by the way, is Stephen King’s Everything’s Eventual, a collection of short stories released way back in 2002.

When the movie 1408 came out this past summer and the ads trumpeted that it was based on a Stephen King story, I was perplexed. I only saw the trailer, but it sure didn’t look like any Stephen King story I’d ever read, and I was pretty sure I’d read all the ones that had been anthologized.

When they started advertising for the DVD release a couple of weeks ago, it piqued my curiousity again and I went looking for the story on which the movie was based. I stood for a long time in Chapters, flipping through the pages of Everything’s Eventual and reading a paragraph or two out of most of the stories, and the more I read, the more convinced I became that I was holding in my hand a whole collection of Stephen King stories that I hadn’t read before. I was beyond delighted and bought the book on the spot.

That evening, I started reading it on the bus on the way home and sure enough – I recognized the second story, a rather hair-raising story about a young boy who meets the devil while fishing on the banks of the river near his home. It was the description of the devil that triggered it for me, a pallid but otherwise ordinary fellow in a black suit who just happened to have deep flaming pits where his eyes should have been. No doubt, I had read that story before. But the first story was only vaguely familiar and the third story was definitely virgin territory. So either some of the stories were anthologized elsewhere, or I got interrupted the first time I had the book and never got back to it. Since it would have been issued around the time Tristan was a newborn, I suppose that’s conceivable, but just barely.

All this to say, I am again beyond delighted to be savouring an entire book of undiscovered (for me, at least) Stephen King stories. The stories so far run the gamut from melancholy but only vaguely odd (“The Death of Jack Hamilton”) to creepy (“Everything’s Eventual”) to genuinely frightening (“The Man in the Black Suit.”) Now that “1408” is out on DVD, I’m debating whether to read the story first or watch the movie first. Ordinarily, I’d choose the story, but I do love me some John Cusack.

Aside from the simple joy of reading good stories, I love this anthology because it’s basically an annotated version. King’s introduction to the book acts as a sort of elegy for the short story as a literary form, and each story is introduced by a few paragraphs that explain how he conceived and realized it. I’m absolutely fascinated by the processes of writing, from inspiration to creation, and am especially intrigued by Stephen King’s insights. Much as I enjoy the stories themselves, I think I enjoy each snippet of insight into the process just as much.

As if finding a whole, thick anthology of fresh Stephen King isn’t enough of a gift, I’ve made another discovery. As I’ve said before, I’ve long been a Stephen King stalker fan. There were a few books back in the 1990s that weren’t very good – I’m thinking Rose Madder, Gerald’s Game – and that seemed more like he was calling them in through the haze of his then-drug and alcohol addiction. But, simply because even on his worst day he’s better than most, I’ve always gotten around to reading just about everything he’s written… with the exception of his Dark Tower books. I don’t know why, maybe it was the term “Gunslinger” that always turned me off. For whatever reason, I decided back in the day that I didn’t like that series and was always annoyed to discover a shiny new Stephen King book in the bookstore only to realize it was yet another one of the Dark Tower books.

Well, there is a short story in Everything’s Eventual called “The Little Sisters of Eluria” that is a kind of prequel to the Dark Tower series, set in the time just before Roland sets off on his epic quest. It was an engaging story, one of the best in the book so far, and I have no idea why I ever rejected the Dark Tower series in the first place. So now, in addition to a delicious new anthology, I’ve got an entire series of seven brand new epics to read; it’s like finding out JK Rowling released seven more Harry Potter books while you weren’t looking!

On this, the Canadian day of Thanksgiving, I’m extremely thankful to have not only a good book to read on a rainy holiday, but a whole line-up of new reading material stretching out ahead of me!

Snog-worthy literary characters

I was going to save this meme for later in the week, but I got so wrapped up in the writing of it that I couldn’t bear to leave it in the can.

Veronica at Toddled Dredge wrote a post about posts she has not written, and one of those topics was seized upon by her commenters as a post that should be written. Thus, the meme that wasn’t, but is: my top ten ‘snoggable’ literary characters.

This was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. I mean, a “kissable” character is not the same as a “favourite” literary character. Arthur Dent from the Hitchhiker’s Trilogy, for example, and Garp, while among my favourite and most memorable literary characters, are not exactly the ones I’d most like to lock lips with. Plus, I’ve lamented before about my absolutely horrible memory for the details of a book once I’ve closed the cover for the last time. But once I got rolling, I realized that (a) there are lots of kissable literary characters out there and (b) I have ecclectic tastes in literature – and men.

My top ten most snoggable literary characters are:

10. Andy, the narrator from Generation X. I’m a sucker for a quick wit and tasty turns of phrase.

9. Jasper Jackson from The Calligrapher. An artist, a lover of poetry and a sensualist… but above all, a rogue. I’ve never been immune to the charms of a rogue.

8. Remus Lupin from the Harry Potter series. I almost chose Sirius Black for this slot, but it’s his fierceness that I find attractive. For kissability, you want the more sensitive soul, right? Lupin it is.

7. Luke Skywalker. You may argue that he isn’t exactly a literary character, but it was in reading the book that my 10-year-old self truly pined for Luke Skywalker.

6. Rhett Butler from Gone with the Wind. See rogue comment above. (Not so much the movie version, though. I think the moustache detracts from the kissability factor.)

5. Henry DeTamble from The Time Traveler’s Wife. Swoon.

4. Holden Caufield, from Catcher in the Rye. Moody and dark… and maybe I could ‘save’ him with a few good kisses?

3. Ricardo Carlos Manoso, aka “Ranger“, from Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books. Mysterious, dark, rich and almost unbearably sexy. I’m not ordinarily a fan of the darkly handsome, but Ranger must be the hottest character in fiction. Ever.

2. Louis de Pointe du Lac from the Vampire Chronicles. Lestat is way too arrogant, but Louis is sensitive, and thoughtful, and oh so sensual. Plus, Brad Pitt plays him in the movie. I mean really, this one was a no-brainer.

1. Ponyboy Curtis from The Outsiders. My inner-14-year-old left no doubt that this would be my number-one choice. Vulnerable, thoughtful, and a writer, but fiercely loyal and tough enough to fight for what he believes in. Sigh.

Want to play along? Consider yourself tagged!

10-pages-in book review: The Ruins

What’s that, you say? A long, long time ago, I used to write book reviews on this blog? Hmmmmm, maybe I remember that, way back in the distant recesses of my brain.

For the most part, I haven’t written a book review here in ages simply because I haven’t read a book worth reviewing. Most of the summer has passed in an enjoyably mind-numbing fashion, reading the likes of James Patterson and other paperback pulpy nothingness. I just finished Kathy Reichs’ Break No Bones, and I was planning to write a review on that one, but I accidentally finished it before I could get a 10-pages-in review written. (I really, really like Kathy Reichs. I can’t stand that TV show, Bones, based on her protagonist, but I do love the books.)

But really, this post is not about the books that I have not reviewed (although, apparently, that is a post in itself) but the book I am currently reading and about to review forthwith and without further ado: Scott Smith’s The Ruins.

The storyline is straightforward. A group of four young Americans (two couples linked in friendship by the females) are on an extended vacation in Mexico. They befriend a single German fellow who sets off in search of his missing brother, and by happenstance more than circumstance, the four plus a fellow Greek tourist who speaks no English (nor Spanish, nor German), accompany the German fellow on a trip out to some local Mayan ruins to search for his brother. And then things quickly begin to go very, very bad.

From the first pages, the book has an unremitting tension that fairly hums through each page. Even before things begin to go badly, there is little doubt that it will. Foreboding haunts the reader from the start, pulling one inexorably onward, and menace coalesces like a fog with each hastily-turned page.

The Ruins, like Smith’s previous book A Simple Plan (later made into a movie, which I never did get around to seeing, starring Billy Bob Thorton and Bill Paxton) is in essence a book about how very ordinary people deal with very extreme circumstances. Smith uses the circumstances of the novel, which are extreme but far from inconceivable, as a lens to explore a concentrated version of basic human behaviour and interaction. I’m half way through the book, and though each of the characters has been roughly sketched out – one is more heroic, one more self-absorbed, one a whiner and one silently stoic – I haven’t yet seen a lot of character development. And yet, because each of these characters is Everyman, I understand each of their unique motivators on a personal level. I can’t imagine that’s an easy feat to pull off, as a writer!

I can’t actually say a lot more about this book without starting to give away some of the plot, and I really don’t want to do that. Suffice to say that if you, like me, have strange phobias about weeds and common garden plants, you might want to read this one in the daylight hours. Half way through this book, I’m quite glad I can probably ignore what’s left of my garden for the rest of the season, and deal with the weedy interlopers and aggressive perennials come springtime. By then I should have forgotten the parts of this book that made my toes curl like the tendrils of so much creeping ivy.

This book is a wonderfully suspensful novel that I suspect may trip over to the realm of genuine horror by the time I work my way through it.

MotherTalk book review: Bob Books for Beginning Readers

I have a confession to make. I didn’t read a single book in the boxed set I’m supposed to be reviewing today for my stop on MotherTalk’s Bob Books blog tour. In fact, I had them read to me – by Tristan, my five year old son.

(pause for gasps of delight and surprise)

Yep, it’s true. Neither one of us imagined he could read a whole sentence, let alone an entire book, and yet by the end of the first day, HE had read to ME not one, not two, not even four, but FIVE books of the twelve book boxed set. And they say boys tend to have trouble with reading!

BOB booksThe Bob Books are designed for beginning readers. Each book in the set of 12 introduces a few new letters and increasingly complex sentence structures. The letters seem to roughly follow the same introduction schedule as the Jolly Phonics program they’ve been using at Tristan’s school – first M and S and A, then D and B, then G and H, etc. Book one starts with simple constructions like “Mat sat.” By the fifth book, he was sounding out full sentences like, “Dot and Mit sit on a mat.” A little thin on plot, maybe, and they lacked character development. But it was really something to watch Tristan sound out new words and assimilate familiar ones with only a little bit of coaching from me, and the look in his eyes as he realized he was actually reading was truly a great moment in my parenting career. His attention span is a little sketchy sometimes, so I was delighted when we finished one book and then another and he continued to ask me if we could keep reading. It was his idea to continue through the box, not mine, and he was eager to continue reading books to Beloved the next night at bedtime, too.

It was also a good way for me to see where we might have to do a little more work. He was having trouble distinguishing between a lower case “n” and “h” for a bit, and confusing his “b” and “d” (I’ll give it a bit before I start to panic about dyslexia, which does run rather rampant though my family.) Like his mother, he wants to be able to rush ahead without actually reading the letters themselves, and I had to keep reminding him to slow down and read the words and not just guess based on the picture. “Trust the letters,” I told him. “The pictures can be tricky, but the letters will always tell you the truth.” I was really astonished at how quickly he assimilated entire words. By the end of the fifth book, he didn’t have to stop to sound out “the” or “and” or “is”.

I was really impressed by the first set of Bob books, and was pleased to see that there are four additional sets we can work through. (You can read more about them on the official Bob Books website.) Might be a good way for me to invest the $20 Amazon.com gift certificate I’ll be getting for this MotherTalk sponsored review!

Best quiz result ever!

As seen at Expectant Waiting.


You’re Catch-22!
by Joseph Heller

Incredibly witty and funny, you have a taste for irony in all that you see. It seems that life has put you in perpetually untenable situations, and your sense of humor is all that gets you through them. These experiences have also made you an ardent pacifist, though you present your message with tongue sewn into cheek. You could coin a phrase that replaces the word "paradox" for millions of people.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Is that not the best quiz result ever? I read Catch 22 when I was a kid and loved it even then. I should crack it open again.

***

Speaking of books, it’s back to school time, and Andrea over in the Fishbowl has a great back-to-school photo contest. You can win an HP Photosmart C5280 printer/scanner! Click over to Andrea’s place for details and some good photography tips, too.