I have several places to obtain these books. First, my friend Amber is an avid a reader as I am, and we are always trading books. Most recently she gave me a book about the true story behind Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur (can't recall the name) and a short novel from the 1970's called Shockproof Sydney Skate. I finished Shockproof a few days ago. I wasn't all that impressed. The main character, Shockproof, is in his late teens. His mother, M.E., is a lesbian, but has never told him. They both fall for the same girl. It sounded scandelous when Amber described it to me, but ended up being just sort of blah. In exchange for those two books I gave Amber The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath, and The Broke Diaries by Angela Nissel. Those two books couldn't be more different, though both were amazing. I read The Broke Diaries while on the metro in D.C. last summer, and found myself laughing hysterically like a lunatic, surrounded by strangers. It chronicles the life of a poor graduate student. It is honestly one of the funniest things I have read in my life.

I also love the free book exchange. It's actually called The Book Thing of Baltimore, Inc.. It is a completely free book exchange. I drop off my old books and pick up new ones. They literally have thousands of books. I have a few unread books from my last trip there, including two volumes of an autobiography of a woman with autism (Nobody, Nowhere and Somebody, Somewhere), a short novel called "P.S. Your Cat Is Dead Too", and another fiction work called "New York Diary". I have no idea what it's about.

There is, of course, the traditional book store, which gets most of my business. From there I just finished "Fishbowl", by Sarah Mlynowski. It details the adventures of three roommates, and is told in all of their perspectives. It was really good. The differences in perspective between the three roommates was extremely well done, and it got me to wondering how my roommate would write about me compared to how I would write about myself. Also from the bookstore I got "Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About", by Mil Millington. I just started this book today and am about 40 pages in. I'm not sure how I'll like it. It's British, first off. I don't have anything against the British, it's just that I don't always get their humor. Or, their humour.

For most of you reading my diary, you might find this to be a boring entry. But I can't help it; I am a book whore.

Incidentally, in case you were wondering, one of the books I almost bought from Amazon.com is Devil's Knot: The True Story of The West Memphis Three. I'm sure I'll purchase it before I'm out of books to read.