Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Where I've been

Saratoga Springs and Albany are nice enough. Dallas has yet to impress me (and I did give it a fair chance). Chicago is as charming as ever, and Gab is doing well, working in the Batman Building and becoming a bona fide local Chicagan.

That's about it for my travels. I watched the majority of the olympics from hotel rooms, which as I write it, sounds much more appealing than it actually is. I read a book about FBI Special Agent Pendergast, an infallible superhuman cross between James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, The Shadow and Indiana Jones. While the book covered some interesting subject matter and ended up a fun read, it was hard to accept this demigod hero. My one pointer for the capable authors is to tone it down a bit. I mean, this guy has the eloquence of Shakespeare, has a bottomless repository of knowledge on all obscura, is independently wealthy, routinely selects the singularly correct solution to puzzling situations in nanoseconds, physically resembles a close cropped Legolas, and has the foppish first name of Aloysius. Oh yeah, and he even has a ward. It's borderline satire on the genre to shamelessly pile so much onto a single entity. I bet he can fly, too.

Did I mention that he also has an evil brother? I'm not kidding.

And yet, I read the whole damned book. I feel bloated, unhealthy. Like my mind now has gas from the indulgence.

5 comments:

Caitlin said...

It's not your best, but a least it's something...Would assigned topics help?

Greg said...

Everyone's a critic.

Peter said...

There are a series of those books, FYI. Take your tums and read on!

Greg said...

I know, there were ads for them all over the book, and even an excerpt from an upcoming one. There's a fair chance that now that I'm familiar with the character, I'll sheepishly come crawling back for more.

subscription girl said...

so you read a book about what would have happened if batman decided to go the legal route of crime fighting?

thanks for the shoutout. i hope you liked your sammich.