I found Franny and Zooey after I graduated from high school, during the interminably long summer before I went off to college, far away in New York.

It made me realize, perhaps, that I needed to be fiercely curious, in fact I needed to be in pursuit of curiosities instead of wallowing in the uncomfortable world I had known.

Jesse Kornbluth on Franny and Zooey.

I think in these times, I need to laugh more than anything.  That and brain candy.  I am 199 pages into Chuck Klosterman’s Killing Yourself to Live: A True Story.  He is traveling to the sites of the demise of great (and not so great) rock stars.  I probably shouldn’t find this to be candy, but I do.  I have to buy a new copy because I had to give mine as a stolen gift for the Ma-Yi Writers Lab’s 2008 Yankee trade.  We could only use stolen gifts.  I stole it from my friend Lloyd.  Sorry, Lloyd.

In these times it’s hard to know what to get people for the holidays too.  I was just given a Trader Joe’s gift card, which I think I’m very grateful for.  I know I’ll be eating.  Well.  Thank you, L&M.