Finest Things Club

Kids, I had the flu last week, and let me tell you, I read a helluva lotta books.

My selections included Atonement, Valley of the Dolls, about three back issues of Time magazine, and of course, Under the Jaguar Sun. Hey, when your temperature hits 103, you start getting pretty eclectic with your choices.

That said, I was much too sheepish to kick off the discussion, so many thanks to Greg for taking one for the team. But perhaps more importantly, kudos on your reference to synesthesia. After learning about this intriguing ailment on a particularly wacky episode of "House," I based one of my essays for French class on the notion that Proust was probably afflicted with it. Lord, I hate Proust ...

Okay, so about this book: I'm very into short stories at the moment, probably because my senioritis has reached the point where reading anything more than 30 pages has become a task of Herculean proportions. The first one I thought was pretty brilliant, and oh holy hell, how much did you want Mexican food after that? Just thinking about it is making me salivate -- Oh, speaking of which, learned this little trick in one of my thousands of trips to the doctor last week: Close your eyes and picture sucking on a lemon drop. Don't move a muscle, just picture it ... Is your mouth filling up with spit? How freaky is that?!

But I digress ... Upon finishing, my initial reaction was that the book debuted with the best story, but then each subsequent one got progressively worse. However, I find that, more than the others, the second one about the king confined to his throne stuck with me days later. I dunno, maybe it's because every time I hear a floorboard creak I fear that it's the mouse that recently made an appearance in our apartment. Or maybe it's 'cause with all the political coverage in the news of late, I'm finding myself wondering if Barack and Hillary could really handle the pressure of running a country. McCain probably could -- he is one tough old bird.

And that, my friends, is my very first legit blog entry. I'm pretty proud!