I don't usually like to write about the books I read until I've completed them, but I'm in the middle of two books right now and I don't think I'll finish either one for a couple of weeks and I'm compelled to write. I did finish Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth a couple of weeks ago for book club so I suppose I can write about that. I had read his A World Without End, which I wrote about here. Pillars was actually written 19 years before World and takes place in the same village 200 years prior. I guess I read them in the wrong order but it doesn't make that much of a difference. I actually think Pillars is a better book. The writing is better, I like the characters more, and the sex scenes are better. God, I love those sex scenes. But they are pretty much the same book. Pillars is about the building of a cathedral, so in order to understand it better, I read a couple of books about medieval cathedrals and a couple others about medieval castles. I had actually written a paper about Salisbury Cathedral, after which the "Kingsbridge Cathedral" in Pillars is modeled, so I was pretty familiar with the terms, layout and look of the cathedral. Anyway, so I'm on to Possession by A.S. Byatt and Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Both books are brilliant. Possession's story is twofold. A pair of modern scholars, Roland and Maude, stumble upon some letters exchanged between each of their favorite poets, Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte (who are incidentally made up characters and not actual Victorian poets). Ash and LaMotte fall in love through their letters. It is months before they even meet to consummate the relationship but they experience the gamut of emotions involved in relationships that develop under normal circumstances. What starts off as an innocent friendship and correspondence progresses to a passionate flirtation and finally matures into a true romance. What makes this work genius is that Byatt wrote the story itself, along with all the letters and poems included in the book. She wrote two different styles of poetry and letters to represent the writing of her two made up poets. And then she includes critical theory based on such philosophers as Derrida, Irigaray, Lacan. I'm fucking blown away. One of the characters in the book writes a theoretical paper based on the notion of phallocentrism (the idea that the masculine is favored in language and it's meaning). There is a touch of everything in this book from Norse and Greek mythology to Victorian beliefs and customs to a slew of -isms--deconstructionism, structuralism, feminism, post-structuralism, etc. I get dizzy with information overload. It spins me off it to so many directions and I find myself seeking out other works that might explain it all: Metamorphoses, Of Grammology, The Sex Which is Not One. I can't get enough of it. I'm like a kid in a candy store. Yet it is truly exhausting and I can only take it in small doses. Eugenides's book is utterly fascinating. It tells the story of a hermaphrodite (hence the title Middlesex). But in order to understand Cal's situation, he must explain his family history. I'm not quite halfway through but everything seems vaguely familiar. There are so many similarities between this book and another favorite, Graham Swift's Waterland that I am surprised they were written by different authors. Swift's book interweaves the tale of the main character, Tom, with the history of the English fens and the mating of eels, which eventually affect his life and those around him. Eugenide's book does the same with his main character, Cal and the history of the wars between the Greeks and Turks with a splash of the Detroit car manufacturing industry. The circumstances of Cal's family history might be scientifically fascinating to some, but, as usual, I'm more interested in the psychological ramifications of such instances. Enough with the literary update. I must move on to more important matters. I have discovered the most amazing website. It's http://www.pandora.com/ and it's commercial free radio. It's actually radio that is customized to you. You put in the name of a band that you like, or even a song, and it will build a radio station around it, including songs and bands that are similar to those you like. I have about 15 artists plugged in and I put it on mix so that I have a good variety of stuff that plays all day. If they play a song I don't like, I just click and it will never play that song again. I can save artists and songs and listen to them whenever I want--FOR FREE! It's pretty awesome for a person who sits at a computer all day. You won't hear the same 20 songs everyday or have to listen to 10 minutes of annoying commercials. I've been telling everyone about it. I think I should get a commission check from pandora. Speaking of music, I had decided to make a list (to go along with my long forgotten top ten list) of my favorite songs, but it just seemed so pointless. What I'd like is for anyone out there who might be reading this (pretty presumptuous of me to assume that anyone is reading this) to come up with some lists for me and I will make a top ten. Then I don't have to think too hard about anything. Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated and respectfully considered. Thank you and good night.