Dickens never gets better. Ever. I loved Gatsby and I think it definitely gets better with age (I've read it again a couple of times since high school). I still read Wuthering Heights at Christmas every year, it never gets old. Love and revenge intertwined, brilliant. I think it's better to enjoy the book first, the subtext comes later. Or maybe never. But if you enjoy it, who cares? I studied English Lit in college and thankfully, my professors weren't able to kill my love of the written word. And since you are reading the classics, I know it's a "girly" book, but I highly recommend Pride and Prejudice. I firmly believe it is one of the most finely-crafted books in the English language. Outside of Shakespeare, it is some of the most eloquent language out there.

That's fantastic! And if I'd known what a time lord was at the time, I might have been a little more open about my serious crush on him. When Wesley joined the crew of the Enterprise, I was a geeky teenage girl (14, I think) who was also a bit of a know-it-all. Which you can imagine, makes one *very* popular...anyway. I had a raging crush on Wesley because not only was he cute, he was SMART. And there was something wonderful to my teenage mind about having that combination in one person. Sadly, I gave up the show when he went away which my trek-loving husband will never understand since he hated WC w/the fire of a thousand suns lol. Definitely sending this to him, thanks for sharing it. :)

Beautiful imagery. I spent a chilly November morning on a Malibu beach a few years ago when the waves were just beginning to pick up. I can still remember how the ice-cold spray felt on my face, the gloom of the sky and the tenacity of the surfers trying to catch a few waves no matter how cold it was. I now live in the middle of the country so the memory is a fond one, thanks for the reminder. :)

I think a love of reading is more valuable than any math you might have been taught (or not as the case may be) in school. It seems like too much education is focused more on rote learning and less on exploration. I tend to go where the wind takes me with books and what inspires me now might not inspire me 6 months from now and so on. A quick perusal of my bookshelf yields "The Radicalism of the American Revolution" by Gordon S Wood, "Three Roads to Quantum Gravity" by Lee Smolin (I'd recommend this one since you're interested in physics) and "Bright's Old English Grammar and Reader" (don't ask lol). So it's a bit...eclectic. I guess what I'm driving at though is that reading all of those eclectic books has taught me a lot more than I learned in 8 years of college education earning a degree I don't even use.

Oh man, reading this, I knew *exactly* where you were coming from. I had a job interview recently for a department that I REALLY want to be in and I knew and admired the manager interviewing me. The bad part was that I just couldn't help myself. I could see the train wreck in front of me but I was helpless to turn away from it. I don't go fangirl very often even at sci-fi cons but when I do, it's always disastrous. *sigh*