Christmas break

I'm pretty tired. I felt compelled to get home quickly, so I got up at 7am to avoid traffic. I'm glad I did, as I got to eat lunch with my sister Jaclyn and my Mom. Last week was very very stressful. Though I only had one final, I was furiously revising two personal essays for my creative nonfiction class; I finally finished them at 5 am Friday morning, so needless to say my schedule's out of whack.

I always set nearly impossible goals to accomplish over Christmas break, and this year is no different. Other than the perpetual "run a lot, get back in shape" endeavor, I plan on practicing piano, drums, and guitar, because I want musical proficiency.
Though I enjoyed my literature class this past semester, I'm so glad to finally have time to read things of my choosing. Here are the books/novels that I plan on reading...

Philip Roth American Pastoral. I really liked Goodbye, Columbus, and my friend raved about this book, so I picked it up. So far, it's great. Roth's an amazing writer.

Cormac McCarthy All the Pretty Horses. I first discovered McCarthy's work through The Road (one of my favorite books, and one of the most powerful things I've ever read... post on it coming soon). I then moved on to his masterful Blood Meridian, and then No Country For Old Men after that. Though both the movie and novel were excellent, I'm going to say that the Coen Brothers' adaptation was better than the book. Again, two friends of mine highly recommended this one, so I plan on plowing through it next.

George Saunders In Persuasion Nation. I love Saunder's work; he definitely reminds me of Vonnegut (a favorite of mine), but has a style all his own. A fantastic storyteller. Go read Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz; it's one of the first stories of his that I read, and possibly my favorite. Seriously, click the link, and go read that. I apologize for the color and font of that page; it's horrible.

Anything that you recommend I read? I prefer fiction, but if there's some stunning nonfiction work that you'd love to share with me, I'll consider it. That is... considering I make it through all these. Let's hope.
Also, I will still be reviewing albums, and will be posting sporadically as they're uploaded to TMT.