A look inside this neurotic reader's mind.

[rsadelle]

You may never have noticed this, but I like to read in themes, by which I mean that I like to read books that flow together. So, the last week's worth of reading looks like this:

• 8/4-8/5 Changing Pitches by Steve Kluger - Good, but so similar to The Dreyfus Affair, which was published eight years later, that I have to wonder if Peter Lefcourt read this before writing his novel.
• 8/6-given up on 8/8 Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins - I tried, really. I liked the plot, but not the writing style.
• 8/8 Body and Soul: A PsyCop Novel by Jordan Castillo Price - I'm really, really enjoying this series now.
• 8/9 Almost Like Being In Love by Steve Kluger - Excellent (although not quite as much as My Most Excellent Year). Having read three of his novels, I can now pick out recurring plot points and references.
• 8/10-8/11 Tale of Two Summers by Brian Sloan - Okay, and a good transition from Steve Kluger because it takes place in the same geographic area. I didn't think until I started microwaving my lunch on Monday that I knew that the next blog entry I was going to start reading at lunch (the whole book is alternating blog entries) starts with one of them talking about having sex. Luckily people don't read over my shoulder.
• 8/12 The Hookup Artist by Tucker Shaw - This would have been much better if (a) the main character weren't so completely stupid (he's so stupid that I cringed and skipped most of the pivotal scene because I couldn't stand it), and (b) it were about the couple that goes on a date at the very end of the book (I knew the moment we met the person who was the other half of that pair that this was where the book was going [This reminds me of the bit in Tam Lin where Janet and Molly are completely bemused by Emma. Tina reads the first chapter and says, "Emma marries Mr. Knightley, of course."]).

If you notice, everything in that list, except for the unfinished Tom Robbins book, can fit under the category of gay fiction, and the last two are young adult novels. So this brings me to the neurosis: I have two real possibilities for the next book I'm going to read: Schooled by Gordon Korman, which would continue the YA theme, or Closet Devotions by Richard Rambuss, which would continue the gay theme. What a dilemma!

I've put Schooled in my bag to take to work for three reasons:

• I need some good YA lit to take the taste of The Hookup Artist out of my mouth, metaphorically speaking, and I know Gordon Korman can write.
• I can probably finish Schooled by bedtime, and dive right into Closet Devotions tomorrow.
• If I read Closet Devotions, I'm going to feel guilty about not reading my Dewey Decimal Project nonfiction for August, which has double guilt attached to it because it's also a book on loan from someone who I haven't talked to or seen since she loaned me the book back in May.