He peppers his intellectual pursuits
with the occasional novel

Evan just finished what he calls a "most delightful novel" by Penelope Lively, The Photograph. In the above photograph Evan was reading a book on why religion matters, definitely weightier, but one topic of the many Evan pursues with the diligence of a possessed Grad student. I say he was reading because right before the photo was snapped, Mr. Red Vest decided to serenade us at Linnaea's piano. As it turned out, it wasn't such a bad thing being treated to an atonal rhapsody right in the middle of our study session. I suppose we needed the break. It generated this lovely photo.

I asked Evan about The Photograph and he refused to tell me anything. He said it was a book about obsession. "But, that's all I'm going to tell you." I noticed in the three days he read it our lotto dreams switched from Hawaii to London, the setting of the book. Evan tells me it might be complicated living in England. They place a great importance on class structure. Something, I guess, I don't fully understand. I always assumed that if we won the lottery we'd instantly become classy. Not everyone goes out and buys Escalades with spinning wheels. Evan and I have dreams of minimalist rooms with shelving systems to accommodate all the books, books we never have a place for. I think we could get used to living in London.

Right now I'm reading Gates of Eden by Ethan Coen. It's a book of short stories Evan found at Phoenix Books. I'm about 20 pages into the first story and the protagonist has had the shit beat out of him four times already. Maybe when Evan asks me about the book I'll just say, "Very Coenesque." Evan is now reading about King Arthur. Richard Cavendish's book. He says it's amazingly well done. I think he might start reading an anthology of spiritual writing next. We picked up two volumes on the same trip to Phoenix. Next on my list is a book about obsession. It's set in England, but that's all I know. Maybe I can get Evan to write a blog review of the book, then I'll know more about it. Or maybe I should stop obsessing about knowing more about it and just move it to my side of the bed.

posted by Amie Barnett | Wednesday, December 14, 2005