I'm now making my way slowly through Franzen's Strong Motion. It's hard to rush through a book where every line is a gem: from the way Franzen describes a kitchen ("It was like the kitchen of the kind of man who was careful to wash the dinner dishes and wipe the counters before he went into the bedroom and put a bullet in his brain") to the way he compares job ads to personals ("the laconic one-liners seeking watchmen or receptionists and mentioning no benefits or wages; ads like ugly prostitutes who, on the plus side, didn't ask much").

I feel like the protagonist right now, as he sits some time between one and two in the afternoon and waits for an earthquake.