words
The two best books I read in 2004:
1. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity and Love by bell hooks
2. Can't Stop Won't Stop by Jeff Chang
I also enjoyed Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates (fiction), Revolution from Within by Gloria Steinem (non-fiction), Cuba and its Music by Ned Sublette and the Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem, all old books gifted to me by people I love. No gift expresses love as well as a book; it says, "I care about the bettering of your person." (Unless you give away the atkins diet book or something.)
Learned I do not like two Philip Roth books. (I can't remember the titles because I stopped reading them both halfway through. The first big one, and the last one. Portnoy's Complaint and the other.) Quelle surprise. I bet we'd catfight if we met on the street. Except I wouldn't, cause it'd be just like him to write about how it got him hot, dredge up some dogmatic Freudian neuroses, then he'd kill me off.
Also, since I gave up fistfighting in 11th grade (mostly), my physical fights manifest themselves solely in dance form. (Except for Keisha. I don't like that girl. I jump right out the car to fight that girl.) I could probably take Philip Roth on the dancefloor, though. I would like to see him drop down and get his eagle on.
bell hooks came into a cafe I was working at in 2002(?) and ordered brie with figs from me. I just about flipped out, and of course none of my co-workers had heard of her when I told them who that lady in the corner was. I remember her sitting, looking very peaceful with a faint smile, and she seemed to take everything in with her gaze. She is a watcher.
Revolutionary Road was my best of 2004 also. I was reminded of it as I watched the 2nd season of the The Office, my other favorite discovery of 2004.. I thought David Brent's character arc was pretty similar to everyone in Rev. Road, having all his illusions about himself stripped away as he is brutally humbled in the end.