Rainbow Chills

River

I couldn't help but think of River Phoenix when I heard about Heath Ledger yesterday.

Natalie Merchant expresses the thoughts of many in her beautiful song, River:

Young & strong Hollywood son
In the early morning light
This star fell down
On Sunset Boulevard

Young & strong beautiful one
That we embraced so close
Is gone
Was torn away

Let the youth of America mourn
Include him in their prayers
Let his image linger on
Repeat it everywhere

With candles with flowers
He was one of ours
One of ours

Why don't you let him be?
He's gone
We know
Give his mother and his father peace
Your vulture's candor
Your casual slander
You murder his memory
He's gone
We know
It's nothing but a tragedy

Lay to rest your soul and body
Lay beside your name
Lay to rest your rage
Your hunger and amazing grace

With candles, with flowers
You were one of ours
One of ours

I saw cameras expose your life
I heard rumors explode with lies
I saw children in tears
Cry and crowd around the sight
Of where you had collapsed that day
Where your last breath & word
Had been sighed
Where your heart had burst
And where you had died
Where you had died

I saw how they were lost in grieving
All half-believing you were gone
The loss and pain of it
Crime and the shame of it
You were gone
It was such a nightmare raving,
"how can we save him
From himself?"

MLK

Oh, let us turn our thoughts today
to Martin Luther King
and recognize that there are ties between us
all men and women
living on the earth
ties of hope and love
of sister and brotherhood
that we are bound together
in our desire to see the world become
a place in which our children can grow free and strong
we are bound together by the task that stands before us
and the road that lies ahead
we are bound
and we are bound
    James Taylor, Shed a Little Light

 2007
2006
2005

Reading

I used to talk about books quite alot on this blog. Back in 2005, I faithfully posted each month the list of books I had read. I read 65 books that year, 18 in 2006, and 30 in 2004. In 2007 I read 32 books and enjoyed many of them. You can sort by date read on my LibraryThing catalog.

I have a plan for the next few books I'm reading.

I'm currently reading What is the What by Dave Eggers. This is the 2008 selection for the One Book, One Philadelphia project. I went to the Library to hear Dave Eggers speak earlier this week and really enjoyed it.

Next, I'm going to read Manic: A Memoir by Terri Cheney. This is a book that I got for free through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. This is the third book I've gotten in the past 6 months to review. The program is really great. Each month, publishers list books that they would like people to review. Members request books. LT runs some sort of algorithm to match the books with the people who request them based on books in their catalog (among other things, I think). Like I said, this is the third book I've gotten and I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Then, I'm reading the two books that are on their way to me from BookSwim. I spent alot of money on books in 2007, more than I have in years. As a Christmas gift, Michelle got me a subscription to BookSwim. They send me two books from my queue (like on Netflix) and when I send them back, they send me two more. I could very easily borrow books, for free, from the library which has a far bigger and more diverse catalog. The thing is, I SUCK at returning things to the library. I have spent hundreds of dollars in my life on overdue library fines. Seriously. So this works better for me. I can have the books, read them, put them in the mail. No late fees.

So there, that's my reading plan for the next few weeks. What are you currently reading?