Wanderlust

The books currently piled next to my bed include, but are not limited to the following:

Suite Francaise Irene Nemirovsky
Gilead Marianne Robinson (close to that?)
Dreams from My Father That New President
The Jesus I Never Knew Philip Yancey
Time's 2008 recap issue
Let Justice Roll Down John Perkins (a la Susie's baby)

Good reading, no? But have I finished any of them? Hmm, no. And did that stop me from buying three more books this weekend? No. Here's to my new copies of Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible and That Jonathan Guy's Everything is Illuminated. Wish me luck.

I Need a Kick Start

I'm looking for a cheap fix to my month-long writer's block, and I have two possible options. First, I'd like to discuss what's on your checklist of favorite websites to pop in to, more than just the blogs (since I can see those for myself on your OWN blog). I sometimes marvel at how much time I can spend gouging my eyes out with People.com, and then am even more amazed at the number of times I reference it throughout the day.

It's humiliating, but in this strange way that somehow still feels worth it.

So, here ya go. All the stops I make...in no particular order. ;)

*Facebook 

*NYTimes (the headlines, food section, and the "Most Emailed" list)

*SeattleTimes

*Dooce

*Idealist.org (hopefully not for long!)

*Feministing (but frankly, I have to do this in moderation, because I'm not quite that liberal...yet)

*People

*GalaBent.com/blog

*Momversation

*Etsy

*Design*Sponge

*Chow Foods

*MTV to watch back episodes of The Hills  (v. embarrassing)

Okay, now dish. Where do you go when you need some junk food for your cerebral cortex?

So I Was Telling Maryann About This...

I have an idea... it's been floating around in my brain for about a year and a half now, but I haven't actually gotten around to it.

What if, instead of searching for a vast array of somethings for everyone we know this Christmas, we narrowed it down a bit and gave everybody LITERATURE. Maybe a novel, maybe a list of our favorite blogs (literature used loosely), maybe a subscription to a literary journal or poetry magazine.

Wanna try it? Wanna recruit?

:)

OH!

I have another one. Another one that I've had for quite awhile. I really miss hearing the snippets of sophistication from all the folks who groomed me while I was in the cocoon of SPU, and I'm wondering if somehow we could inspire them to have a collective blog. A sort of--here's what made me think today, you should read it too, kind of blog. Basically just a whole slew of interesting or inspiring or gobsmacking links that the rest of us might find noteworthy.

Now I just have to get them to find five extra minutes in their eight days a week schedules. Wish me luck.