Booked

The best thing about having a large circle of friends who do a lot of reading and writing? I almost never want for a book. Thanks to a sense of optimism and a number of gifts from generous friends I am currently five books behind on my reading list for the year. However, I'm still gettting a lot of reading done and have read some great stuff this year.

More on that in a second. First, while I'm on the subject of books, I haven't taken the opportunity to publicly congratulate my friend Wil on publishing his third book, The Happiest Days of Our Lives. He's been selling the paperbacks for weeks now and doing very well. Today (for what I can only assume will be a one-day offer) he will be issuing a limited-run hardback/signed edition. He only has 300, so I doubt he makes it through the day without switching back to paperbacks. That's success for ya. I'm happy when 300 people read this blog in a day. Congrats, Wil, on another great effort.

I was all set to get into a George Singleton marathon when Pauly shipped an old copy of Another Roadside Attraction. Now, I'm knee deep in that funny business and loving it (not to mention being quite surprised I'd never read it before).

I've not done as much reading this year as I hoped. What I have read, however (along with some very, very quick reviews) is on the 2007 Reading List and Mini Book Reviews page. Here's the quick list of my 2007 reads to date.

Kitchen Confidential--Anthony Bourdain
The Making of a Chef--Michael Ruhlman
Dogrun--Arthur Nersesian
Pastoralia--George Saunders
Blackwater--Jeremy Scahill
Sick Puppy--Carl Hiaasen
Bigger Deal--Anthony Holden
Blaze--Richard Bachman (Stephen King)
Nasty Bits--Anthony Bourdain
Looking For Jake--China Mieville
A Dirty Job: A Novel--Christopher Moore

Now, back to the books.