Note to Kristie: Yes, it is the Fagen book. I'm looking forward to reading it, as soon as I finish some of the things I have going right now.

Incidentally, I'm the kind of person who reads three or four books at a time. I'm also the kind of person who starts a book, gets partway through, and then gets distracted by something else, and puts the book down. I'm reading three books right now that I started like that - a year or more ago - and never finished.

Just for the heck of it, here's a list of what I'm reading right now:

The Search for the Indo-Europeans by some linguist whose name I can't recall. It's an interesting book (I very nearly majored in linguistics, until I realized how limited my career path could be). But I do find myself somewhat handicapped in that a lot of it refers to archeological or anthropological techniques I'm not familiar with. This is one I've started 3 times and never quite finished.

Rise to Rebellion by Michael Shaara. This is a novel (a historical) outlining the run-up to the Revolutionary War. It's interesting, I'm learning more about a period that I frankly don't know much about (even though I've had several American History classes over my life). It can be a bit dry in places, though. I once described Shaara as a "typical man's writer" because he doesn't go much into the emotional states of the characters (and when he does, it feels kind of forced or something). This is one I started over a year ago and stalled out on. I'm close to finished though. I have the second book - The Glorious Cause or summat like that continues the story.

Desire of the Everlasting Hills by Thomas Cahill. About the world at the time of Christ. This is yet another I began and wound up putting aside - partly because my life got too busy, and partly because in some places, Cahill's tone is a bit off-puttingly casual, considering his subject (or so I think). What did it to me the first time was his use of "Hello?" as shorthand for "I did not know what this person was thinking at this time, and I want to make a comment showing that." I do not like the writers of my historical books to talk like Valley Girls. (I liked How the Irish Saved Civilization better than this one or his book about the Jews; I think Cahill was closer to his subject on his first book). Still, it's an interesting read, if I can get past the usage of terms like "Lower Bumf***" (to describe how Nazareth was a total backwater) and such.

One of the Peter McGarr mystery novels. The one about the Irish horse-show circuit. I'm kind of stalled on this one because I'm going through a spell where anything that feels like evidence of people's inhumanity to each other is overwhelming to me, and even mystery novels that involve deaths are too much. And these novels are, at times, a bit more graphic and depressing than your average Christie or Stout.

I do need to start "The Master Butcher's Singing Club" soon; it's the November book-club book.

Sometime I should do a photomontage of all my bookshelves, just to shock you all a little bit. I have three, seven-foot tall by 20 inch wide shelves in my living room, four of those cheapie Target "Renovations" bookshelves in my dining room (cookbooks and cooking magazines), another Target shelf, plus two others in the bedroom, a printer trolley full of books, a couple of builtin wall shelves with books, and that doesn't even include my shelves of knitting/quilting/sewing/crochet/toy books and magazines. And several of those shelves are double-banked.