Savage Distortion

LITERARY MULTI-TASKING

I'm a literary junkie. I need to have a book at all times. Reading is like oxygen for me. I'm currently in the middle of three books. Normally, I read one at a time, as most people do. There have been points in my life where I'd start one book, and put it down in favor of another - better book. That is not the case here.

I started an excellent biography of Neil Young - 'Shakey' by Jim McDonough. I got as far as 1970 when he joined CSN, and then I left it in Nyack. So I went out and bought Chuck Klosterman's 'Killing Yourself to Live' (pretty good), and after that I read an AC/DC biography (Two Sides to Every Glory) which was written at the eighth grade reading level, but still provided some insight. Not having been back to Nyack to get the Neil book, I went out and bought two more books which I am reading concurrently.

I am not a multi-tasker, but the books I chose support this approach. I bought another Klosterman book, his first, 'Fargo Rock City', which is his treatise on 80's Hair Metal, which I would argue, for the most part, is not metal at all, but I am enjoying anyway.

I also bought Allison Weir's 'Wars of the Roses'. Allison Weir has written a good amount of historical non-fiction, mostly about Tudor England, and I'm enjoying this book very much. The Wars of the Roses are a complicated portion of English History, and it takes a deft hand to sort through all the lineage and tell a straight story. A task that Ms. Weir is worthy of.

I read the Klosterman book late at night and on the train. These are the moments in my life when I need light reading. I read the Weir book when I'm relaxing about the house, undistracted, and not overly stoned.

Life is, after all, about balance.

Someday I'll get back to that Neil young book.