Slowly but surely

I might actually be the most boring 23-year-old who ever lived. No, really. If living with my parents for the past four months hasn't convinced you of that, then this probably will. I'll go ahead and apologize now for my lack of participation in high-speed chases.

I'm losing my edge here, but to be honest, I'd rather be in bed by 11:30. I have work in the morning!

That said, I started organizing the books I've read recently on my vanity and realized I have six half-read novels lying around. Six! The nerve:

The Emperor's Children, which I bought at JFK one weekend while I was delayed going home.
East of Eden , which I started a million or one and a half years ago.
The Reasons I Won't Be Coming, an impulse buy, which I bought for reasons I can no longer recall from the B&N I frequented on the UWS.
Water for Elephants, a book I bought for a book club I joined in New York and never participated in beyond our lengthy email chains.
Mansfield Park, one of the two Jane Austens I'm ashamed to say I haven't finished and which I ambitiously started after reading The Jane Austen Book Club... which, ironically, I did finish.
Brideshead Revisted, which is coming out as a movie soon, and which I ordered from some British seller on Amazon because I couldn't find it in any bookstores stateside. As is typical of the thrill of the chase, once I got it in the mail it took me a month to pick up again.

So since I found all of these abandoned books I decided to slowly but surely finish each one, because I hate having unread books staring at me. I'm really competitive when it comes to reading. (Who says that?) But honestly, if I hear the name of a book from friends who are trusted literary sources enough times then I sort of panic as to what I'm missing out on and I feel the need to read. (That rhymes- ha.) I guess these factors might have contributed to my major in college... English Literature.

Meanwhile, as of two nights ago I'm hopelessly addicted to Twilight, the first book in the series by Stephanie Meyer into which every Harry Potter junkie has buried their nose. Yes that's right, the novels about teenage vampires. It's kind of cheating, though, because everyone knows they are using that kid who played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as Edward in the Twilight movie that premieres in November. Call me a cougar but you would be surprised at how many girls my age unashamedly find the male cast of Harry Potter attractive. Must be the accents. And yes, I'm fully aware that I admitted all of that just now.

It doesn't take much to make me antisocial, but I read an article recently about the importance of keeping your mind sharp once you are out of school because it drastically reduces your risk of developing Alzheimer's later in life. Clicking the "Record" button on your DVR doesn't qualify.

Vampire novels, it is!

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them."
-Ray Bradbury