Or, When's That Phone Going To Ring, and How Many Books Can I Read At One Time?

I thought a 3-month severance/vacation would be fun.  And, for the most part, it has been.  Beach trip, hanging out with Budd and the cat, reading the paper from cover to cover every day.  But now, I'm getting antsy to get back to work.  Lots of resumes sent, several interviews, and now I find myself sitting by the phone every weekday, especially since our shared answering machine has a really bad version of "Hello, I Love You" on it sung by Budd's father.  He refuses to change it because Budd's maternal grandmother just loved it everytime she heard it, even though she is now in the Great Beyond and is highly unlikely to call.  I'm sure I'm not alone in this endeavor.  By the way, if you are reading this and need a top-notch administrative assistant/graphic designer/marketing assistant, I'm available for hire.  Email me and I'll send my resume right along.  I'm also available through Creative Scamper, my freelance endeavor. 

In the meantime, I'm trying to increase my reading.  I've read those great books that I reviewed earlier, White Noise and The Colorful Apocalypse.  Now I'm working on Cosmopolis, another DeLillo novel, and in my stack (I'm trying to keep up with Budd who reads at least 5 books at a time) are The Reader by Bernhard Schlink; Plainsong by Kent Haruf; Straight Man by Richard Russo; and What is the What by Dave Eggers.

I chose these because, 1) I like DeLillo; 2) Russo's book got great reviews and he won a Pulitzer; 3) Schlink's book was a NY Times Notable Book of the Year and LA Times Book of the Year; 4) Haruf's book was a National Book Award finalist; and 5) Eggers' book also got great reviews and the first couple of chapters are mesmerizing.

I seem to gravitate toward books that are award-winners.  I'm particularly interested in reading National Book Award winners and finalists, and I've found some good ones that were NY Times Notables, in particular, Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. 

If you've read any that are in my pile of five mentioned above, let me know what you think.  And if you have any employment leads, I'd love to hear from you as well.