Greg has been pestering everyone he knows to start using the Shared Feeds feature of Google Reader. And now that I work for the Big G, I've decided to hop on board. So:

 Rus's Shared Feed

I'll try to publish not more than a couple of items a week, and I'll try to stick to the funniest or most interesting stuff that I read. (And if you don't have a feed reader but you for some reason want to obsessively check up on what I'm reading, you can see my shared items here.)

When I start reading a book that I find enthralling it tends to sort of ruin my life: I don't want to do anything else until I've read it, and every sequel to it, and then every other book by that author, and then every book by that author's friends, etc. And since everyone says how addictive the Harry Potter books are, I figured that it was not wise to embark on them until I had some free time.

(You may have also heard me make the argument that I don't want to risk reading them until all 7 are published, in case J.K. Rowling fucking dies before she can finish all 7 of the goddamn books that she promised me, like Douglas Adams did. In truth I'm not that worried about this scenario, but it's a funnier excuse than just saying that I don't have time.)

But anyway, in Arizona I gave in and started reading them. And they've turned me into a complete heroin addict; I'm normally a slow reader but I whipped through them in just a few days. I guess I expected them to be amazing works of literature, but in retrospect that was ridiculous; they're successful and fun because they're not high-brow literary bullshit, why did everyone know this but me?

So anyway, I'm almost done with #5, and soon I will be reading #6, and then I'll be in the same boat as all of you lot--- waiting in agony for the final book. Bitch do not die before you finish writing #7 I am warning you.