That is actually immensely helpful, thank you!

One of my interns recommended it to me the other day. Considering he had previously recommended that I watch Mr. Robot and I loved it, I might as well check it out.

Oh, definitely. Machado de Assis, Clarice Lispector, Raduan Nassar, João Cabral de Melo Neto, to name a few.

But if I don't finish it, how else are my friends supposed to know I'm better than them?

This isn't meant to lessen your enjoyment of Paulo Coelho or his books, but it's interesting how here in Brazil he is widely considered a hack that got lucky by being able to successfully market The Alchemist to a global audience. I'd suggest literally any Garcia Marquez book over Coelho, anyday.

I think DFW's essay on lobsters is one of my favorite pieces of non-fiction ever written. But nothing else of his quite captivated me like that, even though I enjoyed many of his other essays.

That's something I've been struggling more with, recently. Should I keep trudging on with a book I don't like just because it's a "classic" or should I give it up and read something less acclaimed but more fun? I have also read all the Song of Ice and Fire books and had a great time doing it!

A friend recommended I use three bookmarks, with the third one marking the page where there's a timeline of the subsidized years. But that seemed kinda unnecessary, I just memorized the page and moved along.

You mean to tell me I should be reading the footnotes?!

I really liked the few Chabon books I've read, but haven't checked this one out yet. Will definitely get on it now!

I finally read Infinite Jest! I mean, there's still about 100 pages left and I'm really not feeling the book, but I'll try to finish it before the year is over. My impression overall is that it's a poorly done Pynchon. I generally enjoy the addict's chapters and find the tennis academy parts a slog to get through. And…

Yeah, I agree. There were some very good song choices in the show (I'm a big fan of the recurring use of "Where Is My Mind", for instance), but overall I was not a fan of the music. I think the worst offenders were that odd cover of "You're the One that I Want" or that godawful Regina Spektor song about laughing at…

And she's nearly 26 too. Way too old to still be like that. At one point she said she had the emotional maturity of a thirty-something, while I was stuck at 22. I just laughed at that.

At least cocaine is expensive! Also, I don't know enough about cocaine, but you'd think that all the moisture would ruin it.

Yeesh, paying for gas money is just about the worst offer I've ever heard in exchange for sex. At least get me a Big Mac or something.

Were you offered more or less? I need to know for my market research, in case we ever become direct competitors.

I tried. I could have been better, but I tried. She already texted me apologizing about the whole thing, but it was a bit of a passive aggressive apology, and I'm not entirely sure how to feel about it. I should probably just accept it, apologize as well and move on. I would like to remain friends, but it got…

I just read all links on the front page of google, and it sounded right (I should get some work done while I'm at it).

The other being your crooked wang, that we all know about?

Not being attracted to them is part of the job though. That's why it's prostitution and not "get paid to have sex with someone you'd probably have sex with for free!"