I still really like the Gunslinger, even if the rest of the series kind of sucks.

School had me reading Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (yes, Stevenson left out the "the". I don't know why) and I actually enjoyed it a lot. The last school novel I read was The House of Seven Gables, and it was a total drag, so reading something short, sweet and to the point was nice. I'm a sucker for stories about identity, so I found Jekyll/Hyde pretty interesting.

I've also been slogging through Emerson's essays for another class. I like a lot of what the guy says, but damn he repeats himself a lot. I get it, nature is great, the past is overrated, whatever, can we move on now?

I was a bit bothered by what he had to say about charity in Self-Reliance, though. Being intellectually independent and following your own rationality and your own instincts is well and good, but I feel like it's kind of a stretch to apply that philosophy to the material world. It's not developed enough for me to make any kind of serious claims about Emerson's ethical system, but he's hinting at egoism in a way that I don't really agree with.

Not reading anything for pleasure, sadly, I just don't have the time right now. I've got an old copy of The Grapes of Wrath that's just waiting to be re-read, though. Maybe over Christmas.

I recommend Virunga, especially if you care about conservation or the Third World at all.

So a Greek exit from the Euro is pretty much inevitable at this point right? I'm not sure that's a bad thing- if it frees Greece's hands wrt its currency and puts the country in the hands of its people rather than the bankers it might turn out to be a good thing.

/r/destructivereaders is basically for this, although they require you to critique others before submitting your own work.

I don't know of other sites that do this though. Maybe we could start a #writersworkshop tag over here?

I'm pretty sure this is the only way that the Greek people can move forward without surrendering their democracy to the EU and the IMF. I do think that greater European unity is a great thing (considering the continent's bloody history) but I'm growing more and more concerned about these undemocratic multinational organizations that are. What do the IMF, the EU and FIFA all have in common? They don't answer to voters. That's what concerns me most about the TTP as well.