2012 Thus Far

Heed what I have seen with my own eyes, these strange and melancholy testimonies.

I've been an a accomplice to a serial bombing ginger, I have been through the arena twice, I have been an abjurer to scalped Natives, exhaustively run through the empathy circuit in search of the root of evil, searched for cheese in the shifting landscape of life, watched the world return to the Triassic at the fury of the sun, I have travelled with no shadow to the world of faery land upon the back of a mythical cheetah, a host to a complicated curse of ancient origins, helped solve murders in Venice CA with an author, travelled to a distant world and saw the power of words, swam through the sky on bionic wings with a circus of mystery, hitched a ride with a world war two aerial combat photographer, saw the rebuilding of society at the hands of a global pandemic, seen firsthand the future of an immersive and inclusive internet, travelled to an ancient China that never was for a cure to a plague which counts, watched Macondo rise and fall with a promise of a pigs tail, and travelled to a land where the mist rises to eat the flesh of the dead. 

It's been a very busy six months for a bookworm. 

My goal is thirty and I am cruising along the path to completion with eighteen books crushed already.  It should be called out that I am cruising because, for the most part, I am sticking to books under 500 pages.  Last year I failed to attain my goal because of Martin and his behemoths as I trudged through A Song of Fire and Ice once again.   I figure if I get through enough small ones I will be free to take on some of my larger endeavors later this year.  Not that finding books to read has been a problem and the advent of book club guaranteed me at least ten books, as a failure to succeed means I have to buy another member a steak dinner at a nice restaurant.   A bill I would rather not to have to front.  In the event that we are both successful with reading each pick pushed towards us, we simply split the cost.  This seems much better.   With that said, I feel a lot of obligation to read each book since I am the one that sets the whole damn thing up, to fail would be dereliction of duty.  Most of the selections have been diverse and if nothing else, interesting.  As I write this we are about to go through our first ratification to fix things that either were not thought out that entire well or need the group to weigh in.  Hoping we raise the page count since everyone has been able to breeze through the books in the ordained amount of time.

Furthermore, my over-achieving book mate has decided that I need to hop on the World Classic train with him as he plops squarely into Rome Station 26-BC.  This should be some challenging and fun reading but really just adds more to the queue that is already ready to burst its seems. 

Onward to glory I say.  Onward to prosperity I say.  Onward with an ode to the storyteller I say, because without them the world would surely be boring.