books

In the midst of being mildly panicked about my thesis, it occurred to me with a certain degree of shame that I've been reading the same book (Dance Dance Dance) since January*. I started it in Belize, then neglected it for a month after school started. When I picked it back up, I decided to start from the beginning again (I was only 50 or so pages in). I'd been reading in little spurts maybe once a week or less throughout March and the beginning of April, and then on Monday night I decided to stay up after E (who was crashing at my place that night) went to bed and finish up the last 100ish pages. It was an odd but enjoyable book. It was written in the 80s (or at least set in them), and there was a fairly strong anticapitalist theme, particularly apropos to the period. It was a rather lazy, nihilistic anticapitalism, which is my favorite kind. The book also had creepy supernatural elements which were very well written and freaked the shit out of me. I expected a particular ending, and I was dreading that ending, and then it didn't happen, and I was relieved but also kind of disappointed. Anyway, I enjoyed it very much, and it was great to read something by a non-English-writing author (the book was translated of course; I didn't become fluent in written Japanese while you weren't paying attention).

So now, in honor of tax season (or the rapidly approaching end of it), I decided to move on to Perfectly Legal, the thesis of which is that the American tax system is highly regressive, with the somewhat poor, the middle class, and even the genuinely wealthy subsidizing the tax shirking of the super-rich (who are even richer than we are aware because they know how to avoid reporting gobs of their income). Since I'm getting a fat refund this year, I figure now is a good time to read a book that seems to pride itself on making its readers livid regarding the unfairness of the tax system. It also fits the bill more generally for my next book: it's nonfiction, to follow fiction, but it's reasonably engaging layperson nonfiction, so it will still feel like a break from school.

Speaking of school, I'm feeling in good shape for having my thesis done on Sunday. It won't be a perfect draft, but it will be beyond a rough draft. We hit a few more snags in our regression specifications tonight (snags that I'm not sure my advisor has considered), but it will get worked out easily enough. After Sunday I need to refocus on Macro, my poor neglected other class.

And now it's time to focus on sleep. Yay, sleep!

*DWE pointed out to me that in this time I also read his sister's book, as well as The Bachelor Home Companion by P.J. O'Rourke, who is pretty funny despite being, as far as I can tell, a semi-pathetic, semi-despicable human being. But these books were short and easy reads about which I have little to say, so they don't count. (Although I will impart upon you my two favorite bits of advice from Bachelor Home Companion: 1. keep your sheets clean by getting drunk and falling asleep with your clothes on. 2. if your house is really messy, just tell guests: "Please excuse how the place looks. I'm psychotic.")