How I've Missed You...

So it turns out everything was all about coffee. I went back to the coffee shop in the first time in quite some time, and I think that a portion of my general ennui was stemming from my lack of late-night caffeination.

All of a sudden I feel alive again for the most part. I'm running into people on the street everywhere I go (a very classic Bill thing to have happen) and again, to the comfort of many people, the people I've run into recently have not been calling me a legend.

Also, tonight I finally finished reading Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. It's one of those books that is a "challenging read" -- it's 760 pages long, has (according to Wikipedia) over 400 characters, and isn't really about much of anything. It's artfully written, it's clearly a great literary accomplishment, but it's not what a vast majority of us (even folks with a background like mine) would consider pleasure reading. I will say this much: it's hands-down more enjoyable and engaging than I found Finnegan's Wake.

But I can't help but ask: why do I read these books? Yes, Gravity's Rainbow won the Pulitzer, and it was included in Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Greatest Novels, which oddly only includes English language novels from 1923-2005. But still, it bears the question, is it a status thing? (I hope not) Is it a mental challenge thing? (getting warmer) Really, I think it's just boiled down to the fact that at this point in my life, I feel like there are certain books that I should have read. And it's not just part of that BBC list or anything like that.

Am I alone here? Do you all have stuff like that? Movies? Books? Albums? Anything like that? I guess it's like peoples' desires to see all the Major League ball parks or to visit certain cities before they die or something like that. Now back to some more accessible, fun, light reading. Then Infinite Jest. THAT will be an experience...