John Brownlee and Eliza Gauger’s offbeat blog, Table of Malcontents, is–as Eliza stated on her blog–”being gassed by Wired.”  Weirdos Readers like myself have until the end of the month to savor John and Eliza’s ramblings on Wired.  I guess the writing was on the wall when I check my bloglines subscriptions…as of today, there are only 78 subscribers to this blog since its inception. 

Hopefully, Wired management pulls its head out of its {insert proper word here} and reconsider cancelling this blog.

Popularity: 13% [?]

I’m currently reading through “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” by Haruki Murakami. I bought this book after watching the movie “Tony Takitani” (based on one of the author’s short stories) which was recommended by an acquaintance who’s got an eccentric movie/book tastes. I liked the movie so I started looking for books that he has written; and through a link from Table of Malcontents, this book happens to be one of his best.

So far, I am almost through book one (the novel is divided into three books) and I like it so far. My favorite part:

“…in the company I work for, they won’t let you say anybody’s ‘bald.’ You have to say ‘men with a thinning problem.’ ‘Bald’ is discriminatory language. I was joking around once and suggested ‘gentlemen who are follically challenged,’ and boy, did they get mad.”

“Follically challenged.” Priceless.

The person who recommended the movie actually suggested “Kafka on the Shore” instead. I have reservations on reading a book that contains a word in its title that needs to be googled. Maybe once I finish this one.

Update: I just finished reading this looong novel.  Great read.  No doubt one of the best novels I’ve read in a long while.  I’m looking forward to reading a lot (if not all) of Murakami’s writings. 

Popularity: 10% [?]