Oh and. . .

I've been reading J. Maarten Troost's Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu. It's his follow-up to The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific, which I described as an hilarious anthropological study of a slacker and a South Seas island. The second book is not disappointing (so far). The author and his wife return to the islands to continue her work strengthening local government and creating sustainability for the inhabitants. He does his writing and observation as he travels around the island. He's like a modern day fop.

I also just read an article in the Irish Independent (courtesy of BUST), which tells of an open letter Zadie Smith wrote to Marian Keyes in praise of her work. Wow. This is like me publicly admitting that I include Heat, In Touch, and US Magazine along with The New Yorker and Atlantic magazine for more mind exercise. Actually, it's a hell of a lot more impressive than my feeble reading habits. Maybe because they share the same publisher? I hope it's more because Zadie Smith is human, and recognizes the need for some to escape through light writing. I confess that I have not read Smith, but attempted to read White Teeth a few years ago. I wasn't in a good space and felt like I couldn't get beyond the suicide attempt at the start. I will have another go at it soon, when the bag beside my bed is emptied. I keep all my library books in that bag. There is actually a line of books and magazines in the narrow passageway beside my bed, with some dog fur here and there. It's like moss at times.