The noise filters are doing their job well today

I accompanied my family to "Taste of Chicago" and found the radio commercials much too loud. Maybe I am a geezer. I walked out of the restaurant, the radio volume was that loud. Not only that, the television was going too. We were the only customers in and we didn't request the television nor the radio. I don't want to go to "Taste of Chicago" anymore, although the person on staff did turn down the commercials. Ten minutes of ads! How do people cope

More readings:
Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments by Michael Dirda
Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose

Van Gogh's room at Arles : [three novellas] / Stanley Elkin.

Reading in bed : personal essays on the glories of reading / selected and edited by Steven Gilbar.

The best American short stories of the century / John Updike, editor ; Katrina Kenison, coeditor ; with an introduction by John Updike.

Pieces of soap : essays / by Stanley Elkin.
Esquire's big book of fiction / edited by Adrienne Miller.

There are so many readers here in Seattle. I don't meet them because they read. There are umpteen book clubs, but I don't read in book clubs, so I don't meet them. What I'd love is for someone with whom to share reading recommendations and experiences. Maybe making food is a better way of connecting: people in general are happier when their stomachs are full of good food; show me who is satisfied when his or her mind has digested a terrific novel.

The last great novel I read was Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers. Before that it was The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. I read Geek Love and although it cried out to be for 17 years, its message wasn't worth waiting that long for.

I'm very sensitive to input these days. When the input is positive, that is good. I went to school today and three people said hello. I met some parents while we waited for the school bus to return our children to us. That was a golden, neighbourly moment. Now I'm going to watch "Heima."