What a man's gotta do....

So over the last week my wife and I have been talking, and we've come to the conclusions that I am probably not ever going to get a job here, and I need to start applying out of the area. I applied to one out-of-state job and yet another casino job located a few hours from here. I'm about to apply to a couple of other jobs out of state, back in the area where I attended college which is about an hour from where I grew up. I just really need to have something going by the time unemployment runs out this summer. It would be difficult short term, but in the long run it would be closer to what we want for our lives, to move away from here and start a new life.

I'll still continue to apply to things here as I find them, and I'm still holding out a little hope that the job I interviewed for a few weeks ago might produce something in February, but I'm mostly writing that one off. I noticed the ad for it has been reposted. That could be automated, or it could mean they've decided to go in another direction.

Trying to whittle down the "inventory" of library books. I picked up MORE BOOK LUST, a list of recommended reading from a librarian and that has me putting in a new list of library holds. I'm trying not to overdo it, keeping it to a couple at a time. I need to make a spreadsheet of the books...I know it sounds ridiculous but my reading activity is my main source of enjoyment these days.

I finished MAN IN THE WOODS by Scott Spencer. It was good overall, but had a couple of things that I've seen in a lot of books, things that I find irritating. The first thing I believe I have complained about before--taking too long to get to the action or event that sets the story in motion. I don't mind some back-story, especially with a longer novel, but this was a quick less-than-300 page read, and I believe the story didn't really get going until past page 50.

The second thing is something that I view to be kind of like cheating. I like when books work toward their endings gradually--where you see that the author is working toward an ending that brings it all together. Those are the most satisfying books. What I dislike are "twist-like" endings where the ending is brought about by something that happens during the last few pages, something that hasn't really been developed much by the author over the course of the book. That's what happens here, and it bugged me. It's still an okay read.