July 20, 2003

Not much new...

Theres not much going on here.

I refuse to acknowledge that summer is ending. I really can't conceive that theres only like 2 more weeks of living here left before training starts. This summer has just gone incredibly too quickly...it really seems just like yesterday that we all moved in, got settled, started enjoying this...sigh.

I've been reading a lot lately. I started working on The Stories of John Cheever and am about a quarter of the way through. I definitely got it because it was one of the ones Cronin kept reccomending in class, and kept photocopying from. A lot of other short story authors seem to know the book and acknowledge it as a favorite. Cheever is interesting; his stories paint these individual worlds that are great because they're difficult to break out of: each sentence feels lovingly crafted to build some to some larger whole. Its a good read too, because I tend to lose interest in books quickly, and since they're short stories, I can put it down and pick it up later on and not have missed anything.

That of course happened because of a review I read in the New York Times while at work this past week, a review for Absolutely American : Four Years at West Point. This one is incredible: Lipsky spends 4 years at West Point and follows the lives of individual cadets - an almost Military 'Real World'. This book illustrates a collegiate experience I have absolutely no connection to, but for some reason I found fascinating. Lipsky writes of a place where individual freedoms are restricted, something that would otherwise create strife and pain, but instead seem to create a stronger and more cohesive group of outstanding young men and women.

The West Point mystique piqued my curiosity, and I started
The Long Gray Line
, which is the story of the West Point class of 1966, before and during their entrance into the Vietnam conflict. Again, fascinating stuff, but not finished yet...

So yeah, been spending a lot of time reading. I'm behind my record number of books from last summer, but I'm still doing pretty well...

Thats pretty much it. Gotta work check-in tomorrow and cook for a potluck dinner tomorrow night.

[Listening to: Frank Sinatra - Cake - (03:58)]
Posted by Matthew at July 20, 2003 12:40 AM
Comments

Ah, blow me.

Posted by: William Serwerth on July 20, 2003 06:03 PM
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