haven't been posting

Haven't been doing very much at all lately. been stoning at home, playing Civ IV to death and then reading a bit of Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed (deep theology - notes on the Old Testament!) and other random books & articles without imbibing any of it at all. Also listening to Sergio Mendes' album Fool on the Hill, which has got me hooked!

Also been drinking rather more than I'm used to, but I guess it's ok (a bit of vodka or whiskey or irish cream, 3-4 nights a week, not gonna kill me). I need an authority to come over to my place and try my vodka, cos I suspect that some Schrodingerian trickery is going on and it's turning into paint thinner. ^^

I got silver for IPPT a couple of days back, which is quite awesome since I haven't really trained and I never got anywhere near there before all this NS shit.

A bad thing: I'm not feeling any motivation to get intellectually stimulated even though it's all around me. Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy is still on my table and I haven't touched it for a couple of weeks. I read Cherian George's collection of essays Singapore: The Air-Conditioned Nation, and I saw some really interesting points but I haven't felt tempted to go back and dig them up again.

I need to ask the right questions while reading, and take notes, and things, like back in school. A to-do list might help!

Hope this ennui will pass.

How to talk about books you haven't read

I came across this book How to talk about books you haven't read by Pierre Bayard, a Paris University lit professor (it's translated from French). It was funny and I wish I'd read it earlier – could've saved me some mugging for A level Lit eh

One hugely insightful comment I read was (I'm paraphrasing; can't remember it word for word, obviously) that every act of reading is also an act of non-reading. A counter-gesture is what he called it. To have picked up a particular book from a shelf is to have made a decision not to read all the other books that exist. I forget, though, what conclusion was drawn from this, but no doubt it was deep, for it impressed me.

He also introduces a taxonomy of books

• UB: book unknown to me
• SB: book I have skimmed
• HB: book I have heard about, and
• FB: book I have read but forgotten

And for HB, he creates the symbols ++, +, -, and --, for what he has heard about them – extremely positive to extremely negative in that order. Brilliant.

Anyway, How to talk about books you haven't read is an SB for me; for those who're interested it's available at Borders, and there're more reviews here:

Times Online
Guardian
NY Times

On MC

MCs are awesome. I had a fever and a bit of strep throat yesterday but the fever cleared up in 4 hours and the strep throat was gone by last night - and I have today to enjoy myself lol.