"A New Pleasure! A New Pleasure! "****

Yes, it's another literary meme, this one courtesy of Dan the Silver Fox:

What are you reading right now?

Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne - Hi-larious mid-18th Century cock n' bull story, but my edition has endnotes instead of footnotes, making for much tedious flipping back and forth.

The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian - I distinctly remember that the first time I read this book was during a convention in Las Vegas in 1993. I'm now maybe on reading number eight. Got a problem with that?

Our Culture, What's Left of It by Theodore Dalrymple - Just to cheer myself up.

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis - The nine year old's bedtime story. We're reading the series backwards this time. Don't ask why.

Do you have any idea what you’ll read when you’re done with that?

Nope.

What magazines do you have in your bathroom right now?

Down East and The Washingtonian. Also a collection of alumni mags from our various schools.

What’s the worst thing you were ever forced to read?

Beyond a doubt it was Henry David Fargin' Thoreau's Walden. Nothing so boring and at the same time enraging as (to borrow Peej O'Rorke's description of Thoreau) a sanctimonious beatnik.

What’s the one book you always recommend to just about everyone?

Nobody ever asks me for book recommendations because all my friends and family think I'm cranky and obscure. Go figure.

Admit it, the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don’t they?

I admit nothing of the sort. In fact, I'm not strictly sure where the local library is. I buy all my books in part because I'm a pawn of the Consumer Society and in part because I believe trees deserve to die.

Is there a book you absolutely love, but for some reason, people never think it sounds interesting, or maybe they read it and don’t like it at all?

I love Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams, but it always seems to produce glassy stares when I describe it to people. Also, I'm immensely fond of Robert Graves' historical fiction, of which nobody else seems to have heard, barring I, Claudius, and even there they don't realize that it was only the first of a two-part set (the other being Claudius The God).

Do you read books while you eat? While you bathe? While you watch movies or TV? While you listen to music? While you’re on the computer? While you’re having sex? While you’re driving?

Yes. Yes. No. No. No. No. No. However, I've been known to think about books in just about all of the latter settings.

When you were little, did other children tease you about your reading habits?

When I was a kid I got teased about practically everything. My reading habits were simply one more arrow in the quiver of my enemies.

What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down?

I seem to have reached the station in life where I simply can't stay up all hours reading, no matter how much I enjoy the book. The Missus, on the other hand, finished up the latest Harry Potter at about 4:00 one recent morning.

Tag! You're it!

**** Spot the quote. Extra credit for identifying the person(s) who said it; what he, she, it or they were describing; and what part that thing played in the story.