May 27, 2004

Amazon package of the day.

I really don't want to say what percentage of my days include the delivery of a package from Amazon. I just feel like saying what just came in the mail today.

1. CNN Election 2000: 36 Days That Gripped the Nation. Okay, what's the reasoning there? I just wanted to live the excitement of the last time around, what with the 2004 election getting so much attention. Remember that guy holding the punchcard up and gazing in search of the daylight that a detached corner might admit? Yeah, I wanted to relive that old feeling. It seems so archaic now. It was all so ordinary at the time: James Baker repeatedly saying "the votes have been counted and recounted" and Gore's people with the other mantra ("count all the votes... count all the votes..."). I feel like seeing it all again, made new through nostalgia (and boredom with the current election).

2. Dry: A Memoir, the audiobook, unabridged, read by the wonderful author Augusten Burroughs. Because I love the audiobook of Running With Scissors and want to know what happened to that poor boy and also just want to hear more of the amazing comic voice of Augusten Burroughs--who reads his own story wonderfully well. For the full comic power, get the spoken word version. Running With Scissors didn't quite suit my usual audiobook needs: I like to fall asleep listening to spoken word. But there are quite a few things in that book that you don't want playing while you're asleep or trying to get to sleep. It was nice getting Dry in the mail today. I like the liner note: "Dry is the story of love, loss, and Starbucks as a higher power."

Which reminds me ... I'll be back later.

2 comments:

jeremy said...

I listened to Dry recently and thought was fabulous. I liked it better than Running With Scissors, which is saying something! I was a little leery when I saw that Burroughs was going to be reading it--a lot of authors are really not good audiobook-readers, and he didn't do the audio for RWS--but he turned out to be wonderful.

Anonymous said...

The recount was a watershed moment for me. I went from supporting people like Paul Wellstone to a die hard Bush supporter. The recount demonstrated the ridiculousness of liberal ideology in that it wasn't the fault of the voters that they did not properly vote. Instead it was someone elses fault. Get Real! But, I suppose self loathing has existed forever. After all, the self haters began with the Athenians when they blamed the downfall of their city on their own unilateral hubris rather than militant Spartans who lived only for war and death.