Maturity Ensues

Sherry (my best friend in the world) just got a promotion with a scary title: Senior Manager of Strategic Planning. Sure, some of my cohort (myself included) have grown up to become "managers" but I think Sherry wins the scary-grown-up award. (My friend Beata who went to medical school doesn't count, cause she was a scary grown up even in high school.) Growing up is scary. Maybe that's why it's taking me 10 years to finish college.

I finished a great book last night: "Thursday Next: First Among Sequels." It definitely made good on its subtitle. I've often felt that the rest of the Thursday Next series ("Lost in a Good Book," "The Well of Lost Plots," and "Something Rotten") never lived up to the hype of the first novel in the series, "The Eyre Affair." But the latest book, TN:FAS was really great. It was full of the inside book jokes and blatant puns that made the first book so wonderful. While the other three books were a little bit off, they were definitely still enjoyable, just not as polished as "The Eyre Affair." Despite minor flaws, all of his books are consistently funny, and I'd rather read Jasper Fforde's worst offerings than just about anyone else's best efforts.

To be clear, his books are not for everyone. If you are not well-versed in classic literature, you might still enjoy his books, but you'll be missing out on most of the jokes. And if you don't like puns at all, I highly suggest you avoid everything he has written. I, who love both the classics and a good pun, find his writing laugh-out-loud funny, and recommend his books to all of my bibliophile friends.

In addition to "The Kite Runner," which Bernie was kind enough to loan me, I purchased several books to read on my vacation (which starts on Saturday):

• "Prep" by Curtis Sittenfield [I bought this one cause it looked good]
  
• "Stormy Weather" by Carl Hiassen [this one to reminisce about FL]
  
• "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster [never read it, love the movie]
  
• and "The Neverending Story" by Michael Ende [never read it, love the movie]

I imagine those four books will get me through the two weeks at my father's house, although I may need to pick up some more for the trip to Alaska. I'll be sure to keep my blog updated while I'm in Colorado, cause I'll mostly be sitting around and golfing. :)

In aquarium news, one of my emerald crabs molted. I thought for a minute that he might have died, cause the shell was picked clean, but he had only molted as he turned up this morning. I added some iodine (despite my intention not to dose my tank with any supplements) out of concern for the ability of my tank members to mature properly.