I really hate my body sometimes...I finally started feeling better after that damn cold. Even the cough was subsiding. And now?? My kidney is starting to hurt. Why?? Why?? I haven't done anything...I'm keeping it nice and warm...I'm drinking fluids (maybe too much coffee, but still). I really don't need this. Grrrrr...I wonder if I can place a Voodoo curse on my kidney. Give it a good poke with those needles. But that would be sort of counterproductive, I guess. Well, actually, the last time I tried, my Voodoo powers really sucked (and I WAS trying really hard, you would be amazed), so I guess it doesn't really matter.

On the plus side: my room finally looks like it's supposed to. Well, almost, it needs a good cleaning and I need to hang one more picture, but at last it looks more like a grown-up room and not a 13-year-old's. I still can't bear to part with my singing banana, though. Nor the talking alien. (The claw is my master!)

What else...I am trying to increase my reading level to where it used to be. But it's hard to find books that really interest me. I just finished Blast from the Past by Ben Elton. While I did like it in the end it took some coaxing to get me through. (Did not help that I had read Popcorn by the same author and hated it. But I think that might have been because I read it in German and the translation was just awful) I need to read more books by him, since he co-wrote Blackadder I'm putting my faith in his ability to convince me. Did I mention that I love Blackadder??

[aside concerning Blackadder, don't complain if you've heard it before, it's one of my pet peeves]
Note to the bastard who I loaned ALL MY FOUR SEASONS OF BLACKADDER and who DID NOT RETURN THEM: It's not fair that you're taking advantage of the fact that I can't keep track of who I gave what to.... I really loved those tapes. The only reason I did not miss them before is that I thought I had given them to my roommate. Which I apparently hadn't. I really, really, really miss them. As soon as I have more money I will have to buy the DVD set.

[/aside concerning Blackadder]*Note to self: Need to stop using html in conversations. Am such a g33k. Glad we covered that.

Back onto the subject of books. Current reading material: For whom the bell tolls. Can't really say that I am enjoying it yet. Then again, haven't really enjoyed other Hemingway books I read. I was recommended Fiesta. Maybe I should have tried that. Hemingway's bell obviously isn't tolling for me (ha, ha). Sometimes I am really upset that I can't seem to discern beautiful language. I don't care about the language. Either it's interesting or it's not. Language does play a part in it, I suspect, but for the life of me I can't get myself to read a book just for the language. That's not a good thing, I feel, but I haven't been able to change it, no matter how often I try to read some of the classics...

Currently, I am participating in a Book Swap. I randomly got assigned a swap partner. I'll send him a book, he'll send me a book...that should be fun. Sent him an e-mail today offering three selections. (Last Chance to see, A Walk in the Woods, Round Ireland with a Fridge as he said he liked non-fiction travel books) Let's see what he answers. I like getting books...don't you? It's such a nice feeling, owning a pile of books that you haven't read, getting to decide which one you're going to read first and then breezing through all of them without doing anything else. It's rather sad when you get to the end of that pile, though. Like I get sad when I am watching a really good movie and it's about to end and I am thinking: "Nooooo...I'd like it to go on!!!" But that's beside the point.

Other books I have lined up to read (not necessarily in that order):

• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (started it but failed)
  
• Filth by Irvine Welsh (will get it in exchange for Blast from the Past, hopefully)
  
• Complicity by Iain Banks (will I have to buy it or can I also borrow it? I forgot)
  
• Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan (Double Oy Vay. Only fellow Wheel of Time readers can feel my pain here. Note: Hey Pet, I forgot it last time. Remind me on Easter.)
  
• Night Watch by Terry Pratchett (Yes, indeed!)
  
• Billy Bathgate by E.L.Doctorow (on the big "Must Read" pile in my room)
  
• Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee (ditto)

If you'd like to recommend any other books, feel free to comment away. Don't try to recommend books based on the selection above, that's really very random. I'd rather hear what your favourite books are. And why.