2011/06/06

It’s late

...and I am tired, and I have a lot on my mind; and I am prone to occasional insomnia at ordinary times. So this might be one of those nights.

I am reading a few things. I keep books in many places and am usually in the middle of a bunch at once. I’ve several readers who have the same habit, and they often mention that people in their worlds find this odd. But it is quite normal to me... the book of baseball stats lying on the tank of the... um, study. The mystery by the bedside... the history of science or biography or memoir of the Revolution or the fantasy novel or whatever, piled up beside my 30-year-old Stressless recliner: leather and rosewood. I can tell how tired I am just by how bad this writing is :o)

This passage just caught my fancy. It’s from Rizzo’s Fire by Lou Manfredo.

“Male white, about forty, six feet even, ’bout one-ninety. Brown hair, short. Wearing a plain dark jacket and camouflage fatigue pants with dark brown boots.”

Rizzo frowned, reaching absentmindedly to rub at a slight eye twitch. “What kinda fatigues?” he asked.

“Military fatigues,” Sastone said.

...“Were they brown and tan desert fatigues or green and black jungle fatigues?”

Sastone shrugged. “I don’t know. What’s the fuckin’ difference? The guy had on fatigues. Me, I was in the Navy. We dressed like gentlemen.”

Goodnight, dear readers.

— Frenulum

3 comments:

  1. I am one of those "several readers" who have to deal with the puzzled looks of family and friends when they find out that I am reading six books at one time. I currently have a Bogart biography on my nightstand alongside a crime drama, a book about the theology of genetic technology resting with a book about the history of forensic science on my desk, and a treatise concerning the Platonic myths in my briefcase next to one explicating the evolution of the human reading brain! As far as "on the tank," I tend to use the New Yorker for that! Otherwise, I'd not be motivated to ever move! :o)

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  2. If I didn't have a different book in pretty much every room of the house, how would I decide what room to be in? I have no idea how one-book people manage.

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  3. For a few of us in the Army, the proliferation of four-star generals doing television interviews in combat fatigues is discouraging. . . yeah, why not dress like gentlemen? The answer is "it's a time of war", but I think it's a cop-out, frankly.

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