I'm feeling kind of strapped for time, recently. Because I had endless time before the job and.... well, now I don't. I kind of went into how it's making me fear for my music sensibilities on Karaoke Supernova, but now I'm going to also say: it's really cutting into my reading time.

Since I got the job, I've only read 2 books I genuinely wanted to read, the Nick Hornby essay book and the one about Jacob Slichter, the drummer from Semisonic. The thing is: our store is really great for nonfiction, but it seems in fiction we only really get what sells. And I'm the type who likes to just go to the sci-fi/fantasy section, see if a title or book cover catches my attention, read the blurb on back, and if I like it, get the book. Which is usually by some no-name. This is why I find it hard to browse in a library. And why, in our bestseller-obsessed store, I haven't really found any fantasy to read.

Also, I keep picking up our promo books because they're free. And they kind of suck, but I can't not finish them because no matter how crappy a book is I kind of get invested and want to see how it turns out. I seem to have a tendency to pick up chick lit, which is the worst type of book imaginable. I mean, if you've ever seen the movie version of Bridget Jones: that is exactly the formula for every chick lit book ever, only most of them suck at it because none of them are funny in the slightest and whoever the character standing in for Bridget is usually as vacuous and annoying and opposite from bumbling, loveable Bridget as possible. Whoever does the Hugh Grant role isn't a funny jerk, just a jerk. Whoever does the Colin Firth role is this blandly boring hard to believe he's so perfect guy.

Seriously, it's like: irritatingly fashion-obsessed woman also obsessed with meeting the perfect man meets horrible man. horrible man screws her over. woman meets better man, and true love ensues. In EVERY one. Even this (yeah, I don't know why I picked up this one) CHRISTIAN version of the ol' formula I read.

The ONLY good book I've picked up so far in the promos (which.... I'm not all the way through it, and I'm not all the way through two of the other books I picked up when I got this one) is Julie and Julia. It's about this woman who took this old Julia Child recipe book with 540 recipes and decided to make them all within a year's time. But really, it has very little to do with the food and more how the whole thing affected her life and what was going on with her and her friends at the time. And it's really interesting, kind of like reading someone really interesting's blog: which, she had a blog during this whole thing, so maybe that's it. I think I'll look it up sometime, but am too lazy to do that until I at least finish the book.

So basically I've been reading crap lately. Crap that's not even in my favorite genre of crap. When I have time to read at all.

Good times.