Most everybody that has been reading my comments and blog for a while knows my position on footwear with heels, so I won’t bore you with that rant again. By the way, Bloglily, how are your lower back, hips and knees feeling these days? Healthy and pain free? Good, I’m glad to hear it. Hope they stay that way.

In the meantime, I’m reading a very fluffy little novel called Love, Rosie, by Cecilia Ahearn. It’s perfect beach reading, and since that’s where I’m spending my winter vacation, it’s quite appropriate.

Current reading? A lot of academic stuff! But I’m starting to let some other books force their way in – Murakami’s recent collection of short stories, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. It covers two decades of activity and some stories grab me more than others but the never-far-from-the-surface melancholy of his work is very explicit in many of them whilst some (like ‘Man-Eating Cats’ about an adulterous couple’s exile in Greece mix his trademark surrealisms with an awareness of the capacity for solipsistic ennui worthy of Richard Ford. And I’ve started another book on Tibet – “Virtual Tibet” by Orville Schell.

SW — That sounds like a fun read!

Hey Ella — Tiny pink pjs! How exciting is that??!! Yay. And why shouldn’t a reading experience involve some weight training?

I’ll expect you to defend me, then, Mary, in the event I’m apprehended for impersonating Johnny Depp. Temporary shoe insanity. Your reading and listening for the vacation sounds nice, Mary. See you soon!

Lilalia — I’m going to be in London in January and that bookseller sounds like it needs to be on my list of things to do. Isn’t it wonderful when there’s a series of something you like, and the series is really, really, really long?

Oh Kate — Red suede knee high boots! My goodness. And I do like the idea of beginning a book like that in the new year.

Carrie, I agree — that there would be a volume knob for sexiness with a lot of settings astonishes me also. I don’t think that woman is doing much carpooling. But I have been thinking about girl’s night out sexiness vs. work sexiness and think we should do a little research about the former soon, to take some of the edge off the carpooling.

LC — I know what you mean about looking like a hooker. Fortunately, in the neighborhood where I work in San Francisco, just a block away from my office, the hookers are way, way more outrageous than I could be, even on a short skirt, thigh high boot day. Your reading sounds wonderful, and don’t you think this pinot is gorgeous?

Emily, I’m so glad you could make it, and really you look amazing! We just checked Subtle Knife out of the library, so the two boys who haven’t read it can — the movie definitely left you wanting more. And what a wonderful way to think of Gone With the Wind.

Hi Charlotte — Yes, Anna Karenina was such a good book — I think the pevear/volokhonsky team is amazing.

The books deals with Douglas Adams and all that went into the creation of
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy in all it’s forms. I haven’t read much non-fiction lately, but I really enjoyed this book.

Now I am reading a Joseph Conrad anthology. It’s the most manly book I have ever tackled, what with the ships and storms and insanity and so forth, and I keep taking breaks to go wash tiny pink pajamas, which makes it kind of an odd experience.

One that is over, I am onto either Snake by Kate Jennings or We are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg.

And now on to meatier matters: thigh high boots. I was privileged to view those boots in person on my way to transporting boys to the skateboard park. hothothot. I went to the link on Zappos, and read some of the comments of other thigh highers. One in particular caught my attention:

Ordered this boot because face it; everyone should have a thigh high boot in her possession. This one was a good one for the price, but not as sexy as others may rave. It’s not a bad boot, but not a great boot. It’s office sexy, not bedroom, girl’s night out sexy.

I loved this author’s voice. First, the certainty that EVERYONE should own thigh high boots. Second, I was intrigued by the notion that she seems to have a volume knob for sexy that has many, many settings. I tend to think of sexy as a yes/no question. Just what is “girl’s night out sexy”? It’s probably a far cry from “driving the boys to the skateboard park” sexy, which is, in fact, not at all sexy. What a limited life I lead.

As for big books by Tolstoy, I read and loved Anna Karenina this year, so perhaps 2008 is the year for W&P.