Stories and Tall Tales

I have it.

I was at the Power Plant Mall last night to meet Weng and her sister. After spending a couple of hours doing nothing but walk behind them, I decided to check out Fully Booked.

I was pleasantly surprised to find an open copy of John Irving's latest novel Until I Find You. Incidentally, yesterday was the release date of the book's paperback edition in the United States, so I did not expect to find one here this soon. I was about to ask the staff for another copy, when one of them walked towards me, carrying among others, the only remaining copy of the book in the store. Hooray.

The book is surprisingly thick. It turns out that, at over 800 pages, it is Irving's longest novel to date. I'll probably start reading it later tonight, as I only have roughly two weeks left, before all leisure reading gets suspended until after late October.

From the academic dishonesty department: the writers of Smallville and Terminator are looking for the person who came up with the idea of plagiarizing their stories, coming up with an unspeakably stupid Smallville-meets-Terminator storyline, and calling it Captain Barbell. There is no word yet as to whether or not Mars Ravelo has started spinning in his grave.