Pick yourself up, dust yourself off

I'm in kind of a reading rut right now. I realize it may not seem that way because I am always looking for and recommending new titles, but outside of my critical activities nothing has really grabbed me this month:

• I read about two-thirds of OFF THE BOOKS: THE UNDERGROUND ECONOMY OF THE URBAN POOR, but couldn't bring myself to finish it. The book is written in the style I think of as "term-paperish," in which Venkatesh repeats his thesis multiple times in each chapter. I get it -- in the neighborhood he studies, the underground economy and the pursuits it encompasses (ranging from you-really-should-report-that to carries-lots-of-jail-time) touches everyone around and for many people forms their only source of income. The explication of the term "underground economy" is excellent, but the repetition is tiresome.

• I enjoyed the essay collection THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT MY FATHER (IN THERAPY) to the extent that I was familiar with the authors therein collected. The essays, picked and edited by famous blogger Heather Armstrong of Dooce.com, are all from bloggers, but the ones I really liked were from blogs I had already been reading, like Que Sera Sera and Sweet Juniper. Of course, I don't know if I enjoyed those because of the context provided by the blogs or just because there is something about the writing style that I loved. I didn't hate the others -- only for one did I find myself counting the remaining pages -- but it didn't

• I think I'm just not a Joseph Conrad person. Weekday by weekday I'm getting through THE SECRET AGENT, and... I just don't get it. I know I'm supposed to be more engaged because it's about Terrorism and The Individual Versus Society, but I just can't get a grip on any of the characters; they all seem so flat and uninteresting. Is it me, or is it Joe? (World to Ellen: It's you.)

In the past I would break up a reading rut by going book shopping, but holy cow, have I done enough of that. Instead I'm picking up my latest library request, Cormac McCarthy's THE ROAD, and hoping that will help. I was bowled over by McCarthy's NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN last year and from what I heard this book is even better. (It has also been adapted to the screen with Viggo Mortensen starring, although it's currently in post-production limbo.)