You Know Your Hand Is In Too Many Jars When…..

Earlier today I was packing up my bag for a flight. Headphones; check. Blanket (our planes tend to lose heat at the expense of maintaining cabin pressure); check. Soda and munchies; check. Book. It was just then when I realized that in my 2 piles of crap on separate tables, I have somehow gotten myself into 10 books. Ten. I am not reading every single one of them cover-to-cover, but have started each and every one of them in some way, shape, or form, and am not done with it yet.

The run-down:

The End of Alice / Homes
HOLY DISTURBING. I could have been done with this book long ago if I didn’t put it down out of disgust several times and then pick it back up a few days later out of curiosity. This one will be crossed off the list in a few days.

Mastering Digital SLR Photography / Busch
Gotta learn how to use the new camera.

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families / Gourevitch
I have started this book 3 or 4 times in the last couple of years, but actually plan to finish it this time. It’s about the Rwandan genocide of 1994. It’s slow moving but good.

Inventing for Dummies / Bird
Not exactly the book I would have chosen for the purpose, but books in this area were hard to find. Does an alright job of untangling the deliberate unholy mess that is the USPTO and their policies.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers / Roach
I know, you would have thought that I would have read this years ago. Not so.

Building Web Sites: All-In-One Desk Reference / Sahlin & Snell
The woman I work with wanted to give me the responsibility of handling the company website. Me: I know the very basics of building and editing web sites, but I REALLY don’t think I’m the person for the job. Her: Good luck. So, I’m learning. I’m not entirely opposed, as I’m attempting to create something for my site, which is only existent (parked?) in the present for things I have planned for the future.

HTML, XHTML & CSS / Castro
See above.

Financial Planning / Lim
Enough said.

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith / Krakauer
I saw a really cool documentary about Mormon Fundamentalists, and shortly thereafter had this book recommended to me. Crazy Mormons.

The Triathlete’s Training Bible / Friel
I have perused through 3 or 4 triathlon books and have found this one to be THE BEST. Currently, I am using it to design an annual training plan.

After looking at this list, I realize that my pleasure-reading books carry a theme of morbidity, and that my other reads are of all spectrums. Maybe if my interests weren’t ALL OVER THE PLACE and I concentrated on just one specific undertaking, I could actually excel in something!

P.S. It was the triathlon and financial planning books that actually ended up in my bag.