In an attempt to get back on my book-a-week pace, I've been on a reading rampage. Over the past month, I've managed to double my book count, an achievement made easier by the fact that the original count was a single-digit number. Some might consider the books in the list that follows to be "lighter fare", which may be true for two of the titles, but for the rest, I prefer to call them "concise classics".

• Very Good, Jeeves! by P.G. Wodehouse - A compilation of Jeeves and Wooster short stories. I revel in Wodehouse's ability to use the same formula (Wooster gets in trouble, Jeeves saves the day) to create so many fresh and funny tales.
• Jeeves and the Tie That Binds by P.G. Wodehouse - I was on such a roll that I had to read another Wodehouse novel before tackling another author.
• I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This! and Other Things That Strike Me as Funny by Bob Newhart - Part autobiography, part Button-Down Mind in book version. Both parts are entertaining. Newhart is an affable comedian who manages to disguise his sometimes subversive humor with his squeaky clean image. The book inspired me to rent the first season of The Bob Newhart Show, his hit comedy series from the seventies.
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut - Before his passing, I hadn't read a single word by Vonnegut. It wasn't that I was avoiding him; I just hadn't gotten to him yet. I'm glad I finally did. The story of Billy Pilgrim is one of my favorites of the year.
• Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain - While searching for Vonnegut, I came across Twain and decided it had been too long since I had last heard him tell a tale.
• Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck - And since I was in the section, I grabbed one of Steinbeck's novels as well. Tortilla Flat is a somber story (with touches of humor) about a group of friends (paisanos) living in Monterey.
• The Joy of Keeping Score by Paul Dickson - A book I found at a local bookstore. Filled with great anecdotes, quotes, photos, and trivia about scoring and the game of baseball, it's what inspired me to try my hand at keeping score at the Giants game last week.

Even with my recent reading gains, I'm still six books behind. To close that gap, I'm going to be implementing a new project tentatively called Prime Time Reading. For an hour every night, between 8 and 11, instead of watching a television show or DVD, I'll be reading a book. Why watch an unappealing episode of The Real Wedding Crashers when one can enjoy a few engaging chapters of Huckleberry Finn instead?