And you thought YOU were having a bad day!

I just read "Million $$ Baby."

It's the short story that "Million Dollar Baby" was based off of. I've never seen the movie.

Reading the story made me feel like that guy on the bike up there. It was really well written, but I think it's got to be one of the most depressing stories I've read in a long time.

Speaking of reading, if you read my lovely wife's blog (over on....dum dum DUUUMM!....MySpace) you know that we decided to give up TV for Lent this year. It's been pretty great! It made us realize how much time we not only waste watching TV, but how much we waste watching TV we don't even really WANT to be watching. Do we really need to watch Mythbusters, even though we've seen that same episode 50 times? Probably not. Or when we spend 45 minutes flipping through the 13 channels we get because we can't find anything good on, but still don't turn the TV off. Yea, that was us. You know what we do instead? We actually TALK to each other! It's so strange! I love it! :) Oh, and don't worry: once the new Good Shows come back on (The Office, HIMYM, 30Rock) I'll just download them and we'll watch them after Easter.

So between not watch TV and getting a ton of new books given/loaned to me for Christmas and my birthday, I've read more book from Jan 1st '08 through today that I think I did from Jan 1st '07 through about August. I've read some real winners, and some real stinkers. Here, in no particular order, are mini-book reports on those books:

The Books I've Read This Year
by
Faloopa Jones

• Blaze by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman. Stephen King wrote this book way back when Carrie just came out, and tried to release it as Richard. Richard's publisher wouldn't make it, so it sat in a trunk for just over 20 years. Last year he found it again, made some minor updates, and released it. It's awesome: more like Shawshank Redemption that the traditional "King" horror books. It's a tribute to Of Mice And Men, and I really enjoyed it.
• Winkie by Clifford Chase. When Gina told me her friend recommend this book about a teddy bear that comes to life and is tried as a terrorist, I thought it might be pretty good. It wasn't. It was wordy and boring. The story jumped back and forth from the trial to Winkie's life, and while the trial parts were funny, the rest sounded like it was written by a menopausal woman who was very, very bitter. I did not enjoy this one.
• Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill. Bree got me this horror book for XMas and it's not on the list of the top 5 creepiest books I've ever read. Then G read it and said the same thing. It's about an aging rocker who collects items of the occult. He buys a suit on the internet that is supposed to come with the ghost of the owner. The story gets scary in chapter two and keeps going until the last page. It was great - I want to get some of Joe Hill's other books now.
• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. The version I have is the complete - when it was first released in the US, they (and the film) cut out the last chapter, which changes the whole tone of the book. This one was really cool to read because Burgess created a fictional slang that the main character uses to narrate. It takes a while to learn to understand it, but it's well worth it.
• Cotton by Christopher Moore. A boy is born to a black family in the south in the early 60's - but he's got white skin, blue eyes, and blond hair (his Father was an Icelandic sailor who had been passing through). The funny thing is that that's about normal for the book. It covers his adventures growing up, and actually had me laughing out loud more than once. Very funny read, but not just a light comedy book: it was really well written too.
• Tommyknockers by Stephen King. I hadn't read this one in over a year, so I thought I'd revisit it. It doesn't disappoint.

I feel like I'm missing at least one if not two more but I can't recall, so either I'm making that up or they wern't worth noting. In any case, 2008 has already been full of some pretty sweet books. I can't wait to start on the rest - I have three more (and Gina has about 5) that I haven't read, but the smallest of mine is 657 pages, so I've got to be ready for a long one before I start. I'll keep you posted.