[Update: I’ve added a couple of books that I’d forgotten earlier.]

A perusal of my reading habits over the last few months shows how strangely my brain works. I’ll find myself fascinated by one topic, wanting to read and learn all about it. And then somehow my mind will drift over to another topic, and I’ll want to read and learn all about that. And apparently I haven’t really gotten into fiction lately. I’ve been all focused on being an autodidact, and unreal things have seemed a waste of time.

In the fall, I rediscovered my love for the theater, and my reading shifted accordingly. I wanted to learn all I could about it.

Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops by Ken Mandelbaum

Musical Stages: An Autobiography by Richard Rodgers

Ghost Light: A Memoir by Frank Rich

Stephen Sondheim: A Life by Meryle Secrest

Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical “Follies” by Ted Chapin

Sometime after the new year, when gay marriage became big again, I decided to focus on gay politics and other gay issues.

Civil Wars: A Battle for Gay Marriage by David Moats

The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design by Richard Dawkins
(Actually, I only read the first 2/3 of this, after which I got bored. One might wonder why this book comes under the gay section of my list; it’s because I was thinking about AIDS and began wondering about the evolution of viruses.)

And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts

Then, this spring, my inner geek emerged after a long slumber. I’ve still been in geek mode lately.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
(the one novel I’ve read recently — but it was worth it)

Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold

Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine (almost finished)

It’s weird how I’ll get on these extended in-depth kicks that somehow morph into or get replaced by other in-depth kicks. A couple of summers ago I was all about Plato and the “great books” and teaching myself ancient Greek. Before that, I took a class and wrote a screenplay. At one point I was really into doing jigsaw puzzles. As for books, I’ve had political biography phases, fiction phases, and so on.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to find that one job that satisfies me, or even that one goal in life to achieve. And that might be OK.

Life’s a buffet, and I’m in the all-you-can-eat line.

I logged into Amazon.com today and saw something new on the front page. It turns out I now have a plog. What is a plog, you ask? Why, it’s a personalized blog.

That seems kind of redundant to me.

The telescoping coinage of the word is neat, though. “Plog” is short for “personalized blog,” but “blog” is already short for “web log.” And “web,” of course, is short for “World Wide Web.”

So technically, “plog” is short for “personalized World-Wide-Web log.” Even though it’s really just a personalized Amazon log. But the meanings of words often change, don’t they.

Mmmm… etymology.

My family had dinner at The Harrison in Tribeca last night in celebration of three birthdays: my brother’s was Monday, his girlfriend’s was Tuesday, and my dad’s was yesterday. There were seven of us at dinner: my parents, my aunt, my brother and his girlfriend, and myself and Matt. The food was delicious.

At the next table over, I noticed New York City Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff and a female companion.
Doctoroff has been described as a latter-day Robert Moses, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. It’s Doctoroff who dreamed up the NYC 2012 Olympics bid, and he’s also the guy who wants to build a Jets stadium on the Upper West Side. I’m against the proposed stadium, and I’m not particularly fond of the Olympics bid, either. New York is crowded enough as it is, and it’s not like New York needs the Games anyway.

I’m not alone in my skepticism.