This is the one that marks the 27th and 28th.

I’ve read two books in the last few weeks.
The 27th book I read in 2010 was The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni.  It was a decent read about two kids that needed one another so badly…so they started a punk band.

The 28th book that I read in 2010 was Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs.  It’s a bunch of short (and true) stories from the crazy life of Burroughs that we first read about in Running With Scissors.

This is the one about a few books.

I’m pretty sure I’ve read more books than this…I’ve just kind of gotten behind on writing about them here.  But whatever.  I’m only updating this list to keep count.

#22 – The Truth About Stacey – Babysitters Club Book No. 3

#23 – Lullabies for Little Criminals – By Heather O’Neil

#24 – Cross Country – By James Patterson

#25 – Slouching Toward Bethlehem – Joan Didion (okay…I’ve read this book about a million times, but I recently re-read it front to back on a Sunday evening)

So I’m only a quarter of the way to 100.  And the year is about half over.  So there is really no way I’d ever be able to read 100 books in a year.

This is the one with 1 paragraph updates.

First off, I bought a Speedo.  Don’t judge.  I just put it on in the locker room, and prance out to the pool.  Nobody has time to see how I’ve inelegantly squished my junk into it.  This does, however, call for some serious manscaping.  And since I’ve started seeing results at the gym I’m not all embarrassed to be seen in the speedo.  The one area that really needs some of my attention tanning.  Why are gay men so superficial, btw? (There was a lot of TMI in that paragraph…sorry.)

Since my guest post on SixUntilMe.com, I’ve received a lot of really supportive emails, tweets, comments.  Thanks to everyone that read it and sent me support in any form.  Additionally, I should mention that I wrote the post soon after we hit splitsville and just posted recently – so I’ve done some serious healing since then.  And if you liked the post, you might also like the comments that people posted (at the time of this writing there are 31 comments).  The majority of them are supportive, but there’s also a few criticisms of my diabetes v.s. cancer comparison.

I’ve been pretty religious about the my gym routine.  Sure there is the obvious benefits…I use less insulin in a day after I’ve run a couple of miles, my energy level is higher, etc.  Those are all really great reasons, but the main reason I’ve gone six or seven times a week is to keep up the foursquare mayorship.  Since the last time I obsessively blogged about foursquare, I have earned a Photogenic badge for checking in at three locations that have photo booths (?!) and a Bravo Newbie badge when I ate dinner the other night at Fez…which, like Bravo, is clearly gay but straight people don’t always realize it.

My reading has slowed down a bit.  I blogged about the bizzaro couple of days where I was starting books and then deciding not to reading them.  If I’ve ever made fun of you for starting books and never finishing them, I take it all back.  It’s really not something that I do…and it has kind of ruined some of my momentum.  But then I found a James Patterson book (so?!) that gave me my mojo back, and I’ll be posting about the 22nd and 23rd book I’ve read this year pretty soon, I’m sure.

I’m listening to a lot of podcasts now.  A lot.  Like close to a dozen.  Since I’ve last updated y’all on my podcast listening, I’ve added The Big Gay News Podcast (daily gay-related news), Democracy Now! (daily political talk show that I used to listen to on Pacifica when I lived in LA), Johnjay and Rich (it’s a cut up version of their local radio show), Jordan, Jesse GO! (nerdy weekly podcast by two straight guys), NPR: Fresh Air (daily interview show), Pod Is My Copilot (weekly shoot-the-shit podcast), Stuff You Should Know (they pick one topic and break it down so even us stupids could understand it), The NerdistThe Q Cast Connection (which is Chris Hardwick’s podcast), (a bunch of homos from Florida sit around and talk).  My iPod has basically been turned into a podcast-listening device.  Music is for emotional people.

This is the one where I need more self-control.

I have a problem.

It’s a self-control problem.  Every time I walk into the library my mouth salivates and my pulse increases.  I just want to start grabbing books off the shelves and start consuming them.  It’s a serious problem.  I don’t solely check out books that look to be interesting.  I sometimes have to stop myself from taking home mediocre crap that I could probably write a better version of.

Last week I visited the library and checked out three books that all really looked good.  The problem with having three potential good reads, was that as soon as I got through the first 50 pages of one of the novels, I decided it was too boring and skipped to the second.  I didn’t even get 50 pages into the second before ripping open the third.

I ended up bringing all three of the books back without completing any of them.

This last library visit I checked out two books, and promised myself that I wouldn’t open the second until I’ve finished the first.

This is the one with the 21st.

Quickly, I wanted to post that I finished the 21st book for 2010.  This weekend I read Perforated Heart by Eric Bogosian.

I love me some Bogosian.  When I was 14 I stole (forgive me, please) a copy of his one-person show Pounding Nails Into The Floor With My Forehead and just devoured that thing.  I’ve read Pounding… at least 50 times.  And I subsequently bought (yes, with money) Talk Radio and Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll.

And this new-release was wonderful.  I stayed up late each night this weekend because I had trouble putting it down.

Small sidenote: I don’t blog about books read because I want to brag.  It’s really more because I’m curious how many I’ll read in 2010.  It’s hard not to write a paragraph or two about a book when I’m posting the count.  So there.  Haters.

This is the one with misc. updates.

I wanted to blog today, but couldn’t think of something substantial enough to fill an entire post.  So instead you get pieces of me:

* I finished my 20th book in 2010.  I read A Good And Happy Child by Justin Evans – it’s the story of a crazy kid that thinks he’s possessed by demons.  Or is he a kid possessed by demons that everyone thinks is crazy?  Kind of a long read…about 100 pages too long.

* I received my latest a1c results, and I’m quite happy with myself.  Approximately one year ago my a1c was 12.3.  Seriously.  And this week it is 6.2.  Seriously.  If you’re not diabetic, these numbers might mean nothing to you…but to me it shows that I’m on the right path.  Regardless of how bad some people make me feel about my chronic illness, I’m getting closer to control.  Sure, it might not happen over night, and there will most definitely be mistakes…but I’m not a bad diabetic like some lead me to believe.

* Mother’s Day is on Sunday, and I really want to make my mom a blog as a present.  I doubt that she would have (a) the discipline to blog regularly (b) the technological knowledge to do anything creative with the blog and (c) the brain power to remember a username and password.  But a boy can dream.

* In one short week I accomplished all of my Foursquare goals…additionally I became the mayor of my gym, and I’m battling it out with some guy named Fadi and I can’t let him re-gain the mayorship.  Now I need a new Foursquare goal.

* I’ve downloaded about a dozen new podcasts that I’m auditioning.  So far I absolutely love Pod Is My CoPilot and the iTunes Celebrity Playlist podcast.

* Have a good weekend, bitches.

This is the one with the 18th and 19th.

This week I read two books…these are the 18th and 19th books I’ve read in 2010.

The firs book was The Highly Effective Detectve Plays The Fool by Richard Yancey. It is a cute detective novel with a Dragnet kind of tone that makes for a fun read.

And then I finished the third Babysitters Club book. The Truth About Stacey is told from Stacey’s point of view, and she is the diabetic babysitter. There are some funny lttle quotes in this book that I might share later.

Now I have to go figure out what to read next.

This is the one where I just read a lot.

I’m kind of trying to read a lot in 2010.

The 16th book I read was Where The Wild Things Are by Dave Eggers.  I blogged a review at iEATbooks here.

The 17th book I’ve read this year is This is Just Exactly Like You by Drew Perry.  I haven’t written a review  yet because I’ve been dealing with some things.

This is the one about reading.

I’ve discovered this place that is both horrible and wonderful.

The Public Library.

I love it because I can get my hands on new releases, and it doesn’t cost me a penny.  I hate it because I’ve got too much to read already.  Can someone figure out a way for me to just quit my job and read all day?  Please.

In a somewhat related note, I finished Gone ‘Till November and blogged about it here.  If you’re counting, that’s the 15th book I’ve read in 2010.

This is the one about books.

I’ve been spending a lot of time working on my book blog: iEATbooks.com, and I’ve kind of neglected this site.

In addition, I’ve been reading a lot.  Since my last post here about books, I’ve read a few more:

11. Rockstar’s Rainbow by Kevin Glavin

12. Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby

13. Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls – Book #2 in the Babysitter’s Club series

14. Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl

In January I was kind of thinking of challenging myself to read 100 books this year, and now in March I’m aware that that is close to impossible.  One hundred books in a year is like 2 per week…and we’re in the 14th week of the year, and I’ve read only 14.

The picture above is of our new library that we’re putting together.