Read all the books on my to-do shelf

Finished the little ‘Identity’ book of Mark I have.

But I realized I also have a driver’s manual to read through. But my shelves are SLOWLY shrinking.

I have recently done a significant amount of reading, notably buzzing through Cory Doctorow’s ‘Little Brother’ from about 11pm to 5am in a single night. This is an important book. Read it.

It starts with a world slightly into the future, where surveillance techniques are rampant and privacy is at a minimum… and then a bomb goes off somewhere in town, and that’s used as a catalyst to basically remove civil liberties.

This isn’t so much a book about that, though. This is a book about fighting back from that.

I also finished the fart book, am almost done the little ‘Identity’ book of Mark, and I’m starting to go through The Vindications by Mary Wollstonecraft, though I don’t know if I’ll actually read through them all. A surprisingly not dry read, however. I own the book from a political theory class I took back in my first year… never used it, though.

Books left on the to-do shelves: 29.

I’ve finished quite a bit recently, including a 300 page book starring The Incredible Hulk that I picked up for a dollar at the big charity book sale in town. Silly, but neat. I like my superheroes. I also read/skimmed through a DVD containing a magazine with photoshop tips (so I sort of remember what’s in there, so if I need to learn any of those skills, I can return to the DVD or just consult professor google). On top of those, I went through a couple Mensa games books that were given to me years and years and years ago that I’d never really looked through, doing the puzzles that I wanted to, and skipping the others.

I am currently now halfway through a book on farts through history and culture. Yes, you read that right. The book will be a great birthday gift for a friend I know. :)

My work schedule has shifted to evenings for the next month, so I get to do one of the most pleasant things I can think of – wake up without an alarm, grab a book by my bedside table, and just read.

Read a short story I had on the shelf. Something I wrote back in high school. Don’t think I’ll revisit it, though it had a couple nice writing devices I’ll put in my toolbox to try again someday.

32 items left. (Yes, I plan on making an entry for each one. Keeps me motivated.)

Read through this year’s Student Writing Union publication… which I was an editor for the drama and non-fiction sections of, so I’d read half the entries in there already.

33 items left – might finish a quick item (a few printed pages, to be honest – an old short story of mine to see if I want to revamp it) today.

I bought a couple picture books at a garage sale, but no worry, I’ve finished reading them. :)

The Eleventh Hour and Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs. Good times, and I’m sure one of my friends will be happy to receive them as an unexpected birthday gift sometime. :)

Just finished reading ‘Real Magic’ by Wayne Dyer today… an absolutely amazing book that can change how you interact with the world for the rest of your life. It has definitely had an effect on me.

Go into it with an objective eye – there are definitely elements of his philosophy that I disagree with, but far more that make so much sense to me and which I want to realize in my life.

Seriously. Go find this book and read it with an open mind. Experiment with his suggestions and see if they work for you.

Read Terry Pratchett’s ‘Eric’ in the last couple of days. Was nice to just whirr through a funny fantasy romp after all my recent more serious, heavy reading.

Read through a book of short stories – ‘At The Bottom Of The Sky’ by Peter Dube.

Some great writing in there, tied with some stuff I don’t really ever want to read, which left me clouded as to whether or not I wanted to keep it.

So, given my current reducing sentiments, it has gone into my box of things to give away. But still, I really enjoyed the short story ‘Cerberus’, and there are some solid character portrayals in there that are unlike any characters I’ve read before. Adrian, in particular, steals the show in my memory.

This weekend I put away a literary collection of poetry that I realized would only ever be used as a reference (I’m not going to read through it all), read a small magazine/booklet put out by a theatre event called SummerWorks in Toronto, and reread George Orwell’s essay on the English Language that I had put up there out of general interest.

Number of items left: 34.