I was up all hours last night attempting to subdue recent anxieties. I know I've always had a taste for the melodramatic. And I've often attempted to defy routine living and working hours. (There's something about being caught in the shuffle and sway of the throbbing 9 to 5 masses, duped into weekend deals and elbowing through the metro like a hoard of mindless, ravenous zombies that I've always found particularly discomfiting). But last night, I funneled most of my stress into Facebook's virtual bookshelf. I have no idea why. Maybe it's the bookclub my roommate started. Maybe it's the fact that I've been tearing through novels lately and I feel an even further sense of completion upon selecting the "read" icon. Maybe I hope to seduce like-minded individuals into thinking I'm an "interesting person" with "fabulous literary tastes". Who the fuck knows? Maybe it just occupied my time in that oh-so-elegant Facebook sort of way that is both equal parts narcissism and voyeurism, a deadly cocktail I find absolutely irresistible during some of my darkest, post-midnight existential battles.

Dare I even pretend to notice that maybe, perhaps there's about 2 minutes more sunlight per day than there was about 2 weeks ago? Hm. Even if I'm wrong, 2 minutes more daylight is almost as good as a hot cup of coffee to warm fingertips stiffened from the January chill. Almost. Holy shit, my exaltation of the fair trade Peruvian blend c/o Treats is becoming almost pathological.

I put a copy of "On Photography" by Susan Sontag on hold at Chapters. I'm barely able to contain myself until tomorrow to pick it up.

"Photographs are perhaps the most mysterious of all the objects that make up, and thicken, the environment we recognize as modern. Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood."

I feel that most students well versed in photography or art history or possibly even something similar to my background in anthropology have already read this or something like it. My one-track minded experience in university blinded me from Sontag's work and I wasn't all that focused on understanding photography within a theoretical or cultural context until recently. I'm dashing back to basics and reveling in the reinforcement of postmodern ideas that have already been floating around my head for a while. Next on the reading list is Liz Wells' "The Photography Reader". It appears to be a massive tome, revealing photography from start to finish in its glossy pages and I can't wait to get my fingers on it. Library card, Liz, don't forget the library card.

I have to say it kind of feels auspicious to be fascinated by two authors (within fields I hold rather close to me) to be called Liz. The other one is Gilbert. "Eat Pray Love" is possibly one of the best gifts I've ever gotten myself, though her lesser-known TED lecture is fully worth a gander as well.