It’s all Boing Boing’s fault. It’s been years since I’ve read a book nearly as captivating as this one. It’s a completely bizarre and wonderful comedy science fiction novel, kind of like something Douglas Adams would write but without the religious and philosophical implications (so far).

Anyway, I am hooked. The book isn’t in print anymore, but I snagged a copy at the local library (I think I got the only copy in town), although you can download it for free on pdf (not sure how much fun it would be to read that way). And before you snort derisively about “science fiction comedy,” just know that my favorite authors are Jane Austen, Cormac McCarthy, and Jim Harrison. I loved Tom Jones,Villette, and Middlemarch and haven’t browsed the SciFi section since I was in the seventh grade and hooked on Orson Scott Card (unless you count Douglas Adams, who I read in college).

So yeah, that’s what I’m currently reading. And I’m hooked. I’m so hooked that I bring the book to work with me and have been resisting the temptation to take “Buddy Holly” breaks. And I brought my computer home over the weekend, but I hardly opened it because I was stuck in this book.

I absolutely love to read. It’s one of my great pleasures in life. But I am a very slow reader, and I think that contributes to my record of getting bogged down and never finishing a lot of books.

I’ve long wanted to know how to speed read, or at least just speed up my current reading. I think I might give this a try, as found on BoingBoing.

Now repeat after me: aeiou aeiou aeiou….

One of my favorite bloggers, the magnificent 500Jerk, asks:

What’s on your bedeside table? What does your bedside table say about you?

I’m at work right now, but I can tell you what you’d find on my bedside table, aside from the three-day-old cup of water and a dusty lamp (which obviously says that we don’t dust as often as we should). At any given time, my bedside table is covered in children’s books for bedtime reading to the household toddler. I think one of them right now is the wonderful Llama Llama Red Pajama, still dealing with his llama drama.

Also on my bedside table are several unfinished books I started months ago: The Things They Carried – which I was rereading and therefore have an excuse not to finish – and the last book in McCarthy’s Border trilogy. I love McCarthy, but I have not enjoyed the border trilogy. I’m hopelessly mired in the last book because I can’t deal with the main character falling in love with a dying underage prostitute.

Maybe my bedside table says I’ve been bad at picking books lately, but what it says to me is a warning about my short attention span. I’ve considered getting the Kindle reader for my iTouch; I don’t read books because I can flip open the ‘Touch and have some immediate gratification in the form of brain candy. And I’m not proud of that fact.

So, what is on your bedside table, and what does it say about you?

Whenever I’m busy with seven day work weeks or studying for some major test, my mind tends to wander towards what I’d rather be doing. Sometimes I think about how nice it’d be just to watch some television and have a beer. During my brief foray as a graduate student in history, I remember being jealous of my father while he dug for potatoes – clearly a sign that I was in the wrong place for me.

Right now, though, I’d just like some music and a book. That’s it. I could be on the couch or the front porch or even at my desk, like I am now, just so long as I could read a book or two and listen to some good tunes.

And I’ve just got about three weeks to go before I can do it, too.