Skinny Books

There are few things that I find so utterly satisfying as reading a good book from cover to cover. Heck, even reading a not-so-good book in its entirety brings a sense of accomplishment that I enjoy.

I'll admit, for me, it's sometimes a feeling akin to another notch on the cerebral bedpost. I enjoy walking into another man's library, checking out his collection, and then pointing out certain titles and saying, "Oh yeah, I read that one. It was good."

So, when I'm in need of that special feeling of completion and don't have a lot of time to give, I turn to the skinny books. They're easy like that. :-)

When I went on the Road to Oprah tour with The 1 Second Film and the Evangenitals, all I took with me were skinny books. This was partially an attempt to pack light, as well as a desire for different readings depending on my variable moods, and I felt I was more likely to finish at least ONE skinny book in the midst of a crazy month-long tour.

On that trip, I had Howard Zinn's Just War, The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery, Jean Luc Nancy's Hegel: The Restlessness of the Negative, as well as Nancy's The Muses.

I said they were skinny books... I didn't say they were light. For a less life-shattering skinny read, I'd recommend Henry Miller's The Smile At The Foot Of The Ladderor any of the short stories in JD Salinger's Nine Stories. Though, those are both pretty f*ck'd up in their own way. I'm pretty sure anyone else out there who has read "A Perfect Day For Bananafish" is with me on this. Right?

I only finished 2 of the 4 books out there on the road (Just War & The Dreaded Comparison), however, I was pretty friggin' stoked to have finished TWO BOOKS during our band's FIRST MAJOR TOUR! Not bad. Not bad at all.