Finds a convenient streetlight/ Steps out of the shade.

Esquire's trying to figure out The Best Song of the 21st Century. Do help.

Oh, I am what I am/ I do what I want.

Had a pretty good weekend after a fairly long bit. Got me thinking about other stuff that makes me (almost) as happy. It's an interesting list, even though this post restricts itself to writers who have contributed significantly to my happiness.

Douglas Adams. The only writer I've read who makes me laugh out loud. (I'm not a very laugh-out-loud kind of person. Easily amused, perhaps.)

PG Wodehouse. Leagues ahead of the rest simply because of that incredible output. Ninety-six books. Ninety-six. Makes me reel.

To a lesser extent, Carl Hiaasen, Jasper Fforde, and PJ O'Rourke. And, maybe, just maybe, Terry Pratchett, though his charm wears off easily.

Note: Almost as hysterically funny as the Wodehouse books are their BBC adapations. I think it's my weakness for British accents.

Turning Japanese/ I think I'm turning Japanese.

It's a mad habit, but I love it -- the process of finding a lyric in my head that works as a title to a post. Often cracks me up (yes, I'm as easily amused as I am daft). And sometimes -- like just now -- it takes me back to a random time and place that I thought I'd completely forgotten about.

'Turning Japanese', the 80s pop hit by The Vapors, whose chorus is the title to this post takes me back to my early college days. Back when Adam Curry was on MTV, and I used to watch the previous month's (year's?) Top of the Pops on video. Yes, video!

The 80s did nothing much for me musically, besides hardwire some of the worst lyrics in creation into my head. Very, very scary. Especially with this retro thing people have going these days. Really, really bad pop singles that I thought had sunk into oblivion two decades ago are now scarily making their reappearance. (Don't believe me? 'Turning Japanese' is on the Charlies' Angels soundtrack.)

It's a particularly funny lyric (to my twisted mind, at least), since this post has nothing to do with my actually turning slitty-eyed and Lost in Translation. All I needed was a title to a link to an oldish Murakami interview I just came by.

Maybe you should flip through: How We Are Hungry.

It's Dave Eggers' latest offering, a collection of short stories. Don't miss After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned.

Maybe you should read: Kafka on the Shore.

Simply because it has everything. Sex, Greek tragedy, talking cats, hitch-hiking, surrealism, murder, Beethoven, ghosts, libraries, Johnnie Walker, and a 15 year-old protagonist called Kafka Tamura.

Sublimely plotted, and simply written. To call it a coming-of-age novel is to call The Little Prince a fairytale.

Came dangerously close to overtaking Sputnik Sweetheart as my favourite Murakami book.