OK, I am officially quitting "Shiloh." I just don't see it getting any different than the 2/3 I have already read. It's one of those books that, if you dug it, you could read it forever, but if you're not invested from the first page, you're not going to become invested by an interesting change in tone or plot 10 pages in because there won't be any changes. I would not go so far as to say it made the Civil War boring, but it wasn't an interesting book to me. I would pick it up and find where I had left off, and every page looked the same. Still, I'm crabby I can't add it to my year's list. I did complete my reading of "We Have Always Lived in the Castle," by Shirley Jackson, which was pretty creepy.

Also, yesterday I watched the film "Dig!" It was wonderful. It's about the Brian Jonestown Massacre; I saw them at the Peacock Lounge in the Lower Haight, maybe in 1992 or 1993? And I just remember a wave of sound coming off the stage, and about 50 people onstage, smoke, and the people I was with were all talking about how notorious they were. Anyway, the movie is completely fascinating. Right up there personality-wise with "The Last Waltz."

And then we went to see "Tristram Shandy," which was a total slam-dunk. Just loved it, the Paris Bennett of 2006 movies so far. I guess this means I have to see all the movies Michael Winterbottom has made since "24 Hour Party People," including the science-fiction one and the porno. I actually remembered enough of Tristram Shandy the book from 20 years ago to catch a few jokes. Other people in the audience were also conspicuously laughing at these places. Yay! It was a big-time bridge-and-tunnel crowd, older ladies in wool ponchos.

The one thing we are missing here, besides everything, is a good used bookstore to browse in after the movies.