On the bus ride home I read about 10 pages of a book, and yay, I feel all exhilarated by the prospect of reading it! It's Jay McInerney's Brightness Falls, and my god the writing is hot! Totally rad! All perfect and superb characterisations and stuff. Like there's this cool interaction between this glamourous pair of New York marrieds, and the husband goes "You're still my blonde bombshell," and she replies "A mere shell of my former bomb." Ha! I'm sorry, but I'm very excited. The last few months have seen a procession of books begun and aborted in favour of other distractions. And now the stars have conspired to put in my hands a book that I am both jazzed about and - as I am ONE essay away from 5 weeks of freedom - the requisite leisure time to read it. Not that many of the other distractions that drew me away from the aborted books were uni-related or anything, but, still, the perception of spare time is greatly magnified by having no study committments. The other books were all quality publications I'm sure, but I just wasn't vibing them. And though they are now strewn all over the house, abandoned, I have promised to get back to them and finish them someday. And I will. After all, what is a girl if she does not keep her promises? I ain't no flake, I'm just perenially tardy in fulfilling the obligations of my various undertakings. Anyway, so Brightness Falls is off on the right foot. If only I'd started reading it a few days ago, it might also have added a little something to an essay I was doing. See, in the preface, there's this sentence that goes "Begin with an indiviual and you'll find you've got nothing but ambiguity and compassion; if you intend violence, stick with the type." It seemed quite relevant as a jumping off point about the dangers of stereotypes, which would lead into my argument that the great contribution the Queer Eye guys have made to gay progress is that they manage to both fully embody and yet totally humanise a gay stereotype, engendering personal affection wherever they go. Just so you know, I did NOT use the word "explode" or any of its variants at any point during my essay. Anyway, one essay to go. Not sure Jay McInerney can really help me add some flair to a discussion of the issues that remain unresolved in the history of race relations in Australia, but he does provide enducement to get the thing done.