Yesterday was pay day and with the money in my account, without missing a beat, I fell off the wagon. My two week hiatus from purchasing books, new or old, was over by 1:15 p.m. Normally I walk up Newbury Street to the Trident bookstore, but yesterday I wanted to, needed to, buy some books asap. Thank you MBTA. Hopped on the Greenline and two stops later I was in the store. I could have bought four hardcover sale books for less than the price I paid for my two paperbacks, but I wasn't in the mood to lug four hardcovers around. (Hardcovers could have been
Adventures of Augie March by Bellow, two Banville novels and something else.)

I bought David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Kate Atkinson's Case Histories. A little behind in the game, I know, but I've been wanting to buy them for awhile. But first I wanted to go through some books that I had laying around at home. If I didn't read Plot and Extremely Loud when I did, I may never have.

I may only be 50 pages in to Cloud Atlas, but my man can write. I didn't necessarily love the first chapter, but I liked how it was written. It seemed like an attempt to make a Melvillian entry. The second chapter is great so far. A struggling musician throwing himself at the door of his idol should be revealing. (I guess if Kerouac were still around, I'd have been at his door.)


Though I wanted to finish Cloud Atlas this weekend, I probably won't. There are pubs to go to today right after work, then my second job tomorrow, leaving only Sunday.

It's cool outside, but the smell of spring is in the air. The sidewalks are strewn with peoples in green today, the day everyone's Irish.


And thanks to Bookdwarf, we have the heads up that David Mitchell will be at the Harvard Bookstore April 19.