The Final Countdown / 26 Books Update

Well kids, it is twenty-nine days until I am twenty-nine no more. The sunshine of youth is dipping below the horizon more and more rapidly. Jerry Rubin said don't trust anyone over thirty, so tell me your secrets and collect on any IOUs quick, because you better believe come September I'll sell myself to the Man for thirty pieces of silver or a sub-prime adjustable mortgage first chance I get.

By the way, I've made it through the first two books on my alphabetical syllabus, Auster's Music Of Chance and Barthelme's Paradise. I have started to stray from the path, but only a little. After finishing the Barthelme* I was enthused enough to pick up the Donald's Sixty Stories again and finish up where I left off a few months ago. Also, while I'm hovering around 'B', I thought I might at least try the goddamn Da Vinci Code (Brown) since Heidi owns it and hey, might as well see if it's any fun. For my 'at work' book, I've moved into 'C' already, but am putting off the Cave book (which is a re-read anyway) for Harlan Coben's Tell No One, which came to Heidi as part of a birthday Cheesecake & Crime package from my mom. After going over my Goodreads account and my Facebook "Visual Bookshelf", I've had to make some adjustments to my original list, but I'm committed to sticking to this alphabetical structure, if somewhat loosely, because otherwise I just keep starting books, getting distracted, and setting them aside in favor of whatever new comes across my path. It's nice to have a plan. Structure = good.

See? I'm already sounding like The Man. Next thing you know, I'll be promoting ethanol and audibly wondering why no one uses turn signals anymore. You've been warned.

*I'm also thinking of re-reading Double Down, which Donald Barthelme's brothers Frederick and Steven wrote together as a collaborative memoir of their shared gambling addiction. It's a downer, but especially eye opening and important for someone in my profession. And by the by, one of my favorite lists of all time is from a McSweeney's article about the eighty-one books Barthelme reccommended to his students. After I get through my A-Z, I may start the Don's.