50 books

So, I made a New Year's Resolution to read 50 books. The first week of 2008 isn't over and I've finished 2. I guess finish is a better word because I've started several books in 2007 that I think I'll try and finish.
And since one of those books is Ayn Rand's 500-plus page magnum opus Atlas Shrugged, it's good that I've got this head start.
In years past, I wrote a newspaper column about all the books I read in the past year. In 2003, I read 33 books. The first book I read was Pat Conroy's "My Losing Season." And then I read so many more books on top of that. 33 books in all. Mystery novels. Poetry. Non-fiction books about food and running. Books on leadership and coaching.
A little bit of everything.
Like I said, so far this year, two books. Wicked was the first. I picked it up while in Indiana for the holidays. I like the concept of taking a story and telling it from someone else's perspective. Like Grendel, for example - a retelling of the Beowulf myth. I enjoyed Wicked but don't know if I would recommend it.
I do however strongly recommend the second book I read: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. It's the first book in a long-time that I've read that had illustrations. Ostensibly a book for teenagers or something, it moved me. It was powerful. Yes, it made me laugh and it made me cry.
But being an under-employed person who views reading as work... where is that sentence going?
It's a book about being a freshman in high school. It was very similar to My Losing Season because it's also a book about pain. And although written for teens, young adults, whatever, it also showed a great depth of feeling, emotion and literary knowledge and range.
I feel like I'm just spewing bullshit here.
But it also kind of confirmed my decision to quit my job.
And it reminded me too of one of the reasons I left. When people always tell you that you're not very good and you're not going to be very good and when they treat you like you're opinion ain't worth shit, then those are people you don't want to be around.
It's not that they caused me to doubt myself. It's that they caused me to doubt whether I should be around them.
Well that's enough bitching and moaning. I struggle with answering the question why did you quit your job? I struggle with that with friends and with people I barely know.
But I'm excited. I feel hungry for work that matters and I know I'm moving in the right direction.
As those guys in the Bartles and James commercials used to say, Thank you for your support. I miss those old guys.