And it only took me 13 years to finish it...

I have finally, after many false starts, finished Jeff Noon's Vurt.  I must have been about 13 when I started reading it,  I would start to get into it and then get really put off by something.  At first it was the incest, then it was the lack of explanation as to why there are dogpeople, and what is a shadow, and is what is vurt anyway?  But now the fully grown me cares not for reasons, now I understand a story is not always what it appears to be except when it is, and the bizarre and disturbing just don't get to me like they used to.  Let rephrase that last part, I find a lot of the stuff (fiction, non-fiction and it affects on my psyche should really get its own post) I read very disturbing and bizarre, but now I enjoy it.  I like that it's a challenge, and that it forces you to really think about it in the context of the story and what is the author's point.  When I was younger I was able to toss aside plenty of books by just assuming the author's a really fucked-up pervert,  therefore the work is worthless.  It was a very literal way of reading, I know.  Now I can say that the author probably is a fucked-up pervert, but doesn't that just add to the entertainment value?  Ah, maturity is a wonderful thing.

Anyway, I read it from start to finish within two days this time.

Another book to add to my wish list

Best possible coffee table book evea, Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine 1880-1930

It's only $30 on Amazon, and wait until I have something celebrate, then I'll get it.  Top image from NPR, lower image found on Amazon.  

Another book to add to my wish list

After we've recovered from the move, and our expenses level out to pre-move amounts, I will acquire this

Junko Mizuno's new art book.  I feel giddy already, I think I'll a pill...

I would also like to get ahold these JM condoms... so could proudly display them in my new home.  In some place of obscene honor.  

Images via MZNews.

As we continue the great baby debate...

I look forward to reading Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body.  That's one of the most common topics discusses between myself and M, as we near our 30s (although I'm further from it than she...),  is the great baby debate.  We go over the pros and cons on a fairly regular basis; they're cute, they're fun, they're loud, they eventually talk back, etc. 
So, to aide us in our decision making process we have offered to take care of a friend's baby.  Or rather, I have been offered by M to babysit for a friend of her's, while they exercise.

Anyway, here's the cover of the book, which is often the very best part of a lot of 'em...

M stole my book

So I was reading the Naked Civil Servant, but M stole it away from me.  She carries it around in her purse, reads the best quotes to me, and then reads silently to herself.  I've already renewed that damn thing twice, she's still not done, and I don't think I'll get to finish it unless I check it our a second time without telling her.  But she did get Peter Sagal's Book of Vice which I've been trying to get from the library for about two months now.  I just need to keep her greasy mitts off of it until I'm through with.  We both hate sloppy seconds.