on this sunny, though still quite cold, Friday. Things couldn't be going better with the new book. Finally. I'm at that point where I want to keep writing until my eyes can't see straight anymore, which is always a good feeling.

Lest you think all I do is write...

I also read, now that I have the new glasses and can see small print again! I've been deeply absorbed in The Disenchanted (1950) by Budd Schulberg. The book was a recent gift from Mark Pritchard, and what a fine gift it was. It's a novel, but it's based heavily on when Budd Schulberg first went to work as a screenwriter and met his idol, F.Scott Fitzgerald at the worst point in Fitzgerald's career.

Since I am such a die-hard Fitzgerald fan, it is both illuminating and heartbreaking to read this book. Like watching a car accident, only with someone you love in the accident. Schulberg is such an easy writer to absorb; it's effortless, if emotional, reading. He also wrote another famous book about early Hollywood that I loved, What Makes Sammy Run? (Another gift to me from Mark Pritchard, but this gift, several years ago already. I was still living in NYC.)

Well, I recently decided to keep up with the New York Times Reading Group and in March they'll be discussing The Shakespeare Wars by Ron Rosenbaum, so I've set aside The Disenchanted for now to read The Shakespeare Wars -- a mere 624 pages! So far, I am really enjoying it. It is quite passionate and nothing at all like what I was expecting.