The one where I read good

In White Teeth, Zadie Smith quotes P.G. Wodehouse: "...Samad was like Jeeves: if not exactly disgruntled, then some way from being gruntled." Or paraphrased, actually--PGW said "far from being". I know because I wrote that line down in my journal when I came across it in January. (Of course, maybe _I_ got it wrong…)

I was quite mathy in high school (no, go on, really, I really was), and pretty much in college, too. But, probably through a combination of living with Rocket for a couple of years and my more recent cruciverbalisticism (I do crossword puzzles), I've been concentrating more on my word side. So this might seem familiar to many of you who had to muddle through my early entries about Ultimate—a long entry, chock full of stuff you could probably not care less about. Here's some stuff I've read and thought about this trip, with some random observations thrown in:

Other Wodehouse lines I liked:

"He did what is known as struggling for utterance."

"Bertram Wooster is a man who knows when and when not to be among those present."

I read some W Somerset Maugham, too. A couple of times he amazed me with his ability to paint an incredibly nuanced impression of a person, or describe a situation or feeling better than I ever could, with an economy of words. Obviously a skill I don't have, but here are some examples:

"She just missed being beautiful, and in missing it was not even pretty."

"It was the kind of party which makes you wonder why the hostess has troubled to bid her guests, and why the guests have troubled to come. There were ten people. They met with indifference, and would part with relief. It was, of course, a purely social function. The Stricklands 'owed' dinners to a number of persons, whom they took no interest in, and so had asked them; these person had accepted. Why? To avoid the tedium of dining tête-à-tête, to give their servants a rest, because there was no reason to refuse, because they were 'owed' a dinner."

Anyway, here’s what I've read, or at least most of it:
- A guide to grammar for English schoolchildren published in 1882
- Honor Among Thieves (Jeffrey Archer)
- Mainlines, Blood Feasts and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader (Ed: John Morthland)
- The Rule of Four (Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason)
- The Final Solution (Michael Chabon)
- Summerland (Chabon)
- Red Rabbit (Tom Clancy)
- Red Storm Rising (Clancy)
- My Many Colored Days (Theodore Geisel)
- Neuromancer (William Gibson)
- Carter Beats the Devil (Glen David Gold)
- A Long Way Down (Nick Hornby)
- The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
- Into Thin Air (Jon Krakauer)
- Freakonomics (Steven Levitt and William Dubner)
- On Human Bondage (W Somerset Maugham)
- The Moon and Sixpence (Maugham)
- The Razor's Edge (Maugham)
- The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy)
- White Teeth (Zadie Smith)
- On Beauty (Smith)
- The Fellowship of the Ring (JRR Tolkien)
- The Two Towers (Tolkien)
- Return of the King (Tolkien)
- The Hobbit (Tolkien)
- Bluebeard (Kurt Vonnegut)
- The Code of the Woosters (PG Wodehouse)

What I tried to read but _despised_, and still shudder when I think about:
- The Unconsoled (Kazuo Ishiguro)

Other Notes:
- the grammar book included 'beeves' as an example!
- Number of times I'd heard (and noticed) the word 'impecunious' before this trip: One, from Rocket
- Number of times I've come across it in my reading: Three, two from Maugham (including 'impecuniosity'), one from Smith

Some Movies I've watched:
- Touching The Void
- The Godfather
- Scarface
- The 5th Element
- Thank You For Your Consideration
- The Valet
- Casino Royale
- The Karate Kid
- Good Will Hunting
- The Fellowship of the Ring

Some Movies I've watched on busses and planes:
- Thank You For Smoking
- Thank You For Smoking
- Thank You For Smoking
- You, Me and DuPree
- Thank You For Smoking (I saw it several times)
- Miracle on Ice
- The Queen
- The Devil Wears Prada
- The Departed
- My Superhero Ex-Girlfriend
- The Incredibles
- The Queen (I saw it twice)
- The Robin Williams One Where He Runs For President

Words I've coined:
- Misgerunding

Words TY's accidentally coined:
- Wasier

Words I Dislike:
- Monosyllabic ('cause it's not)
- Palindromic ('cause it's not)

Words I Like:
- Beeves
- Eleemosynary
- Googol
- Heteroscedasticity
- Polysyllabic
- Sesquipedalianism
- Wasier

Frequent Advertisement For My College Radio Show
- Fidda Fadda Fud Fud

Jeopardy Category I Should Submit: Musical Material
- This type of picture is sometimes called a "velvis". (What is a Velvet Elvis?)
- Mel Tormè. (Who is The Velvet Fog?)
- This Alannah Myles song about Elvis Presley hit #1 on the charts on March 24, 1990. (What is Black Velvet?)
- Isabella Rossellini performed this song in the David Lynch film of the same name. (What is Blue Velvet?)
- Originally, Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Angus MacLise. (What is The Velvet Underground?)