i've noticed something with all the books i've been reading in the past couple of weeks. a good book really infects your subconscious. when you're reading (or have just finished) a really good book, you find yourself thinking like the main character. so right now i'm reading trainspotting, so i'm observing the world through the eyes of heroin addicts with an almost unintelligible scottish dialect. (not to mention experiencing yet another example of "the book is way better than the movie even though i saw the movie first.") it's kind of amusing. i won't attempt to recreate it, but i will say that that's one book that you really have to let absorb into your skin in order to read it, because if you don't, you won't understand one goddamn word they're saying. but on the other hand, i find myself needing to take breaks every so often so that their world doesn't fucking take me over. it's a really compelling book. and i think it'll take me more than a day or two to digest. (yay!) this is important because books have been lasting me an average of a day apiece recently, and i'm not going to be able to afford the habit, even from recycled books in denton. well, i guess there is the library, but for some reason i generally prefer paperbacks. they seem more personal. there's something about the feel of a paperback, and the way you feel like you can digest the book, rather than just read it. if i'm reading a hardback, i want the pages to stay crisp, and the spine to stay unbent. if i'm reading a paperback, i crease the spine, i don't mind if my fingers make the pages warp, and i don't cry if i spill my mountain dew on the text. it's a more interactive reading process that way. it's the same way with used books. when i buy books from barnes and noble, they're sacred. i paid fourteen goddamn dollars for that book, it's gonna stay nice. if i buy a book from say, half price books, or recycled, then it's already been consumed, and i feel like the coffee stains and dog-ears add to the story. and i can add my own without feeling guilty.