Ripped off (?)

For people visiting my blog for the first time--Sorry for the long, crazy posts about my trip to Maine--I promise to work it out of my system soon. Considering that there's no feedback on that stuff, I assume I only amuse myself, but that's okay :) .

I put a stat counter on my blog, and it seems that about 51 different people visited today (!), and many stayed for a few minutes anyway, so...thanks!

If you aren't interested in Maine, or random thoughts buzzing around my head while I was channeling Hemingway while reading "For Whom the Bell Tolls", maybe you could check out my "favorites" to the right...--->

For now, I'm taking a break from a project that I've been working on--it's 5:20 in Dallas and I foresee an all-nighter in my immediate future in order to have a proposal ready to hand-deliver at 9:00 AM tomorrow...

Here are other books I've read since Hemingway: Train, by Pete Drexler, and A House on the Heights, by Truman Capote.

I was really trying to find Deadwood by Drexler, but the bookstore in a certain far northeastern state which I am deciding not to mention again in this blog entry didn't have it available. Train is a pretty rough read--the main gist involves a soulless survivor of the USS Indianapolis, which was torpedoed and the sailors on board treaded water for days--and many got eaten by sharks--and his schemes and adventures in Southern California, where he collides with an innocent, black, golf caddie who tries to do right but keeps getting caught in the middle of things.

(Side story: I had a great-uncle, Uncle Bud, who was supposed to ship out with the Indianapolis, which delivered the atomic bomb. One night, he went AWOL for a while to go out drinking and partying and got thrown in the brig. Before he got out, they sealed the ship and wouldn't let anyone else on, so he got reassigned and as a result was spared that horrible experience).

Back to Train: The writing flows fantastically, but it is a dismal subject. Murders, rape, corruption, torture and mutiliation. Train is the name of a black caddie back in the 50's who experiences racism as a matter of course, and social and economic disappointment at many levels. I'm not sure what the point was, but it is definitely an interesting read.

But here's where I'm wondering if I got ripped off:

A House on the Heights, by Truman Capote

Capote was a writer that I considered to be a little secret from the rest of the world. Reading his work is, to me, akin to savoring fine cognac--so smooth and it is overwhelmingly beautiful. Breakfast at Tiffany's' Holly Golightly is one of my favorite characters (the movie is good, but is a much different story than the book).

So, Fran got me a calendar with a suggested book for reading for each page. Did I wait and look at it day by day? Oh, no, that wouldn't fit my Type A thing that I've got going--every couple of months I just rip through it and pick out 3 or 4 books and just order them...A House on the Heights was recommended as an "alternate" T.C. book, and I hadn't read it, so, did I take the frugal way out and go the the library? Noooooo...I just ordered it from Amazon like a dope.

First of all, the book was misprinted and 2 pages of the intro by George Plimpton and 1 page of the story itself were just omitted.

Secondly, the story itself is only 37 pages long! And I got it in hardback for like $10. Ripped off, I say. Here's a review--I was looking to see if the whole thing is published on-line somewhere...

But I decided to read it and, you know what? You just can't pay too much for fine cognac these days...

I hope I grow up to write like Capote someday...