…But you don’t, so it remains largely a nagging mystery to you.
For example: I have heard very little Tom Waits. What I have heard, I have liked. But I don’t have any CDs, because I don’t feel like I know enough to make an informed decision: what’s his best disc, what’s his best “starter” disc for a newbie, what should be avoided initially and saved for later once familiarity is earned lest a too-early listen hits my ear wrong (think Zappa)… that sort of thing.
And no, I’m not soliciting Waits suggestions. I’ll get into him eventually, when— and here’s the key— I have time. So recommendations would be lost on me right now. The important thing is that I’m fairly certain, once I get around to it, I’ll enjoy and appreciate his work, and will call myself a fan. I just can’t yet.
There’s more on my music list, but to open up the topic, I have a television list also. Tops there is “The West Wing,” which I’m pretty sure I’d adore. I like politics, I like Aaron Sorkin (“Sports Night” is fantastic), I like that style of heightened-drama-played-low-key, I like stories about characters and relationships underpinned with dry verbal humor; I just don’t have time to go through several seasons of DVDs right now. When I do, though, I’m pretty sure I’ll like it a lot.
Television: Lost. Veronica Mars was my new show last season, and I just never got around to watching the Lost box set while my wife was 9 months pregnant. I now expect to catch up on the complete series when it’s over and my kid is in preschool or something.
Books:
Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Trilogy, which I’ve started twice, enjoyed, and spectacularly failed to finish as it’s slow going for the first 1000 pages or so.
David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, ditto.
And the complete works of Shakespeare, something that’s on my to-do list and has been for ages. I’ve probably read a dozen plays, but most of them not at all recently.
Comic books. I’ve read a few titles that I’ve liked, and there’s a lot I’m interested in, but I have too many “real” books and writing projects on the docket now to even think about picking up a new interest. My roommate is a comics freak, though, so I’ll have to get into it sooner or later.
Battlestar Galactica. Everyone and their grandma loves this show, but I’ve never seen an episode. It seems like the kind of SF show I’d like (more about the characters than science, etc), but I’ve never seen an episode. Then again, I don’t have cable, so that makes it harder too. Then again a lot of the BSG pluggers are also big fans of Firefly, and my foray into that show (again, courtesy of the roommate) turned out to be a major flop. So I don’t know.
Crocheting. Supposedly easier and faster than knitting, looks like fun. I expect I’ll do it someday after I finish the 5+ knitting projects in my craft box.
Babylon 5- I like what I’ve heard. I really, really like what I’ve heard. It’s just that every time I sit down and try to watch an episode it just doesn’t click. I can’t follow the overarching plot from halfway through, or I’m turned off by the acting or effects, but I just can’t do it.
Oh, and I keep meaning to dip a bit more deeply into Proust, Conrad, Faulkner, Melville, Homer, Zola, Balzac, Tolstoy, and Dotoevsky. Have only read one title per. Some day. . . .
Since I don’t get HBO, the only way I’d be able to appreciate The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Deadwood is to rent the DVDs and have mini-marathon sessions.
Ooh, that reminds me of another one on my list: Love and Rockets. Particularly the Maggie & Hopey stories, collected in Locas, but I’m also intrigued by the book set in the fictional Mexican village.
Har. If it were only that easy. I spent 10 years reading *Finnegans Wake *(no apostrophe, btw) and I’m still not that guy; I was thinking maybe Proust would do it . . .
Another one that occurred to me this morning: poker. Specifically, Texas Hold’em. I’ve been interested in playing since before the big popularity explosion of the last couple of years, but fear of rubedom and a stubborn determination to play in person rather than online have kept me idle. Plus, I know it’ll take gobs of time – and money – to get any good at it.
I suspect I’ll either hate it or love it, and I doubt I’ll get a chance to really try it out for, oh, a couple dozen years now.