Quote de jour

The full moon made me do it.  To re-design the blog header last night. I loved the girly pink, hippie dippy flower child look, but it's time to grow up. It's a new year and I need a cleaner, fresher look. What do you think? It's a work in progress but so is my life. It'll do for now. The self portrait is new, inspired by the current museum exhibit  FIT (Fashion Insitute of Technology) in New York.

Now on to the reading. I have two words. Oh dear. I promised a pal in SoCal that I'd read less and write more. Whoops! Well, at least my stack of magazines is smaller. I don't recall any other president -elect being on more magazine covers than Obama. Eight more days and counting...

Re: books. What can I say, when it rains it pours. My tsunami of book orders from the library is over-flowing.
I just finished Peter Carrey's His Illegal Self. The two time Booker prize-winning author can write. I envy is facility with dialogue and  not a quote mark in sight. If a lesser known writer attempted that, they'd be forced to do another edit.  I finally got around the the huge best-selling breakout novel, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. I hope time permits a proper read of it. Btw, last week's book on Casanova sparkled like an 18th century Venetian Chandelier. I didn't have time to do the book justice. It's on my list of books to buy. There is no bigger compliment I can give.

Baby Boomers move over. Our offspring are ready to rule. The new book, Growing Up Digital  by Don Tapscott chronicles how the Net generation (who were weaned on everything digital) are influencing  culture and society big time. It's a BRILLIANT must read for every baby boomer and even if you're not. Thanks for making me feel like a techno dodo. I feel I need more therapy... which segues to our next book. American Therapy by Jonathan Engel. This dry but  well researched book explored the rise of pyschotherapy in the United States.  Apparently, 50% of Americans will under go therapy at some point in their lives. I say, only 50%? I don't know anyone who hasn't had therapy. I think my therapist will like it.
Yup, They keep coming. Alas, I won't have time to read the entire 1000 pages of David Thomson's new book "Have You Seen....?"  Its erudite commentary on 1,000 films from masterpieces, oddies and guilty pleasures deserves a spot on any film buff's book shelf. Last but never least is Stephen King's latest, a collection short stories, Just After Sunset (lucky 13!) Now I feel trite using 13 stories in my short story collection, titled: Unlucky in Love.

I have a love/hate thing for Stephen King. I hated his last novel Dumas Key, but how can anyone hate someone who wrote The Shining? I picked up the hefty Halloween-colored book with hesitation and opened it in the middle. I read After The Graduation and exhaled. There won't be time to read more than one more, but we're off to a good start. I have an idea for a horror novel... It's about a baby boomer blogger who likes to take library books out. Every week there is a bigger and bigger pile until she is buried underneath them, literally and figuratively.
See you next week... maybe. I've got some writng to do.