Last summer, for fun, The Boy read War and Peace. This mid-winter break, for fun, he finished up Moby Dick and A Confederacy of Dunces. During Christmas break he read A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations, you know, for fun.
He also reads books to review for his school newspaper. His most recent review was for Stephen King's new book 11/22/63. He gave it a grade A+ all the way to infinity.
While he tries to read stuff that he thinks his classmates might be interested in, he ultimately ends up picking books that he thinks HE will enjoy. His next review is for a book outside his preferred genre. It's called Wintertown and it's young adult fiction. He hasn't written the review yet but has hinted that he's considering giving it a C (which means I'll probably like it).
Shouldn't a kid his age be working? Well, yes. He applied, interviewed, and tested for a Seattle Public Library student assistant position a few months ago and was accepted but has to wait for an opening before he can start working. So meanwhile, he reads. He's completely abandoned Grand Theft Auto IV and all other tv/video time (with the exception of some Futurama now and then and occasionally I can force him into watching a movie with me) so I suppose this is a good thing.
***
In other "The Boy" news, he's received acceptance letters from both CUNY Baruch and CUNY Queens College but has to wait until March 15th to hear back about the honor program acceptances (or feared rejections). He's still waiting to hear from CUNY Hunter, CUNY Brooklyn, NYU, UW, WWU (and Evergreen, which he's yet to apply to).
I've been trying to come up with a graduation gift for him and if he ends up staying in Washington State for college I think I'll get him a train ticket to NYC. He's had this Kerouac-type fantasy of packing up his books and stuff and taking a cross country trip, you know, a trip that will become some amazing memory he'll always look back on and maybe even become a story he writes about one day. I figure If he can't move there then at least he can take a cross country trip on his own. Some kind of story should come out of that, right? Looking at cows. Trying to ignore screaming children. Getting lost. Eating train food. Giving all his cash to a stranger out of the goodness of his heart. Sharing his small sleeping quarters with said stranger who ends up farting all night and sneaks out in the morning with The Boy's luggage and favorite book. That kind of stuff.
