(not classed as major)

I read the next 170 pages of HP1 in bed last night, quietly while E slept -- I feel it my professional duty, as the obligatory host of a midnight release party, to get myself genuinely excited in anticipation of the Deathly Hallows, so I am trying to read the first 6 books before July 21. I'd successfully avoided them until yesterday, and had explained to strangers by way of analogy to their own teen jobs: Nobody wants to eat ice cream after scooping all day.

Over coffee this morning I read the introduction to Shakespeare and the Book, by David Scott Kastan. I am excited by the subject, and sympathetic to Kastan's approach, but I think I'll learn more by reading the footnotes (and following the citations) than by reading the actual text.

Jessi brought back the book I've been reading on subways, The Number System by H.A. Thurston, which I left in Kensington on Monday, when I had brunch with her mother, and I'm looking forward to reading it again. It strongly resembles Cortazar's Hopscotch in its structure. She also brought back All Poets Welcome, by Daniel Kane, which she had borrowed from E.

Apparently "Bouwerie" is derived from the dutch word meaning "cultivated farm" or "gentleman's estate".

Is your war a lemon?

I just read pages 12-13 of The June 30th Manifesto*, while thinking about what to blog. Earlier I read the beginning of the first Harry Potter book in the bathroom. I also perused the Official Baseball Guide for 1979 -- pages 120-121, which features the Slugging Leaders for each year in the history of the American League, starting in 1901.

Actually, there is an entry for 1900, but in place of a player's name it says "(Not classed as major)". A picture of "Boston's Jim Rice, 1978 American League Pacesetter" takes up most of page 121. According to Scott Helmes, John Ashcroft's phone number is 202/353-1555.

*compiled by John M. Bennett & Scott Helmes (Luna Bisonte Prods StampPad Press, 2004)