Sometimes I'm Almost an Adult

After Monday's mayhem, I took Tuesday night off from the Castro. My friend came over, and we tried to set up my DVD player. After a lot of wire changes and a (needless) trip to Best Buy to replace the DVD player, my buddy decided to read the book. With actual instructions, we got it hooked up to my new TV through my amplifier in a matter of minutes. We watched Batman Begins, which was pretty cool, and I got to bed early.

Which means I got up early -- so I cleaned up a little and ran some errands, including a trip to Barnes & Noble. I have been getting flack from a number of people for not having read The Da Vinci Code. As a literate liberal Catholic who likes bubble gum novels, everyone seems to expect that I have read it. I have, in fact, tried to read the thing, but it seems to have an interesting power. Everyone tells you to read it, and everyone offers to let you borrow it. When the offer is accepted, though, it turns out that all of them have already loaned it to someone, and they can't remember to whom, and they can't get it back. If I ever write a novel, I hope I can learn this trick, as it seems a sure way to increase sales.

I realized this mystic power some months ago, but figured I would wait until it came out in paperback. Unfortunately, it seems that this will never happen. I feel like at least two Harry Potter and five Robert Parker novels have come through hard cover to paperback while I have been waiting for a floppy version of Dan Brown's tale. I finally gave in and bought the thing after reading Newsweek's write-up of the movie, for two reasons: (1) I wanted to enjoy the characters my brain generated before they had to look like Tom Hanks and the rest of the cast, and (2) with the hype from the movie, I was guessing they wouldn't make a paperback now.

So I went jogging in the afternoon, and then started reading as the skies darkened. I broke for dinner around 6:00, and afterwards cracked a bottle of wine and threw a Duraflame on the fire. It was a perfectly gray and chilly evening for a fire and a slightly spooky novel. I finished at about 3 AM and went to bed. It was a pleasant read -- I give it a 7. I don't think it should win a Pulitzer, but I'd recommend it, and I think it should make a decent move. I loved the European history, geography, art, and science woven through the book -- but what else would you expect from a hopeless romantic and aspiring Renaissance man?

Eschewing the Castro for a glass of red wine, classical music (from my new digital cable), dying embers, and a book made me feel almost mature. Not so mature, however, that I didn't go shoot some pool tonight -- but that's because I never got a return phone call and therefore did not go to the movies tonight (see last post). Alas. To quote a better novel, though, "Tomorrow is another day".