Reading Race

I am so looking forward to the weekend, I thought I was going to get the afternoon off, but there is too much work to do. People to call, stories to write, waiting for people to call back so can finish stories and go home, mail to open, questions to answer. So yeah, I can't wait for a little down time. I want to swing by Borders and pick up John Stewart's new book. Although I have to remind myself that after I took my dad to Half Price, which came about 2 weeks after I myself had made a trip there, I have a plethora of books on my shelf waiting to be read. To name a few, Contempt, American Gothic Tales (This is a collection of stories I had for a class in college - Gothic Literature - it's a great collection, and the class was great too, except I was definitely the sore thumb. In fact, I was a little frightened every Tues and Thurs morning at 11:30 that semester), Lady Chatterley's Lover, The Thanatos Syndrome (I've made some progress on this one), Infinite Jest (I keep promising to read this next), Heart of Darkness, A collection of works by by Ezra Pound, Eudora Welty's The Runaway Bridegroom, and more. I need to hole myself up for a month so I can catch up. That's always struck me as a funny phrase - catch up on my reading - like you're in a race and have somehow fallen behind and won't quite make it across the finish line in time. But yeah, hole up for a month - only reading, no television, no radio, no phones, no internet, just the books that are piled up on my shelf. Actually, scratch that. Go to the beach for a month - that's it - I can sit on the beach and read. See - there you've got no phones, no radio, no tv, but you've also got beautiful and calming surroundings, and a carefree vibe, which, I'm certain if holed up in my apartment I wouldn't have, especially because my apartment is already cave-like and it would only become worse. And I would constantly feel like I needed to clean or turn on the tv or check my email.