Check out the No. 1 Bestseller in D.C. Like anyone's gonna read the damn thing -- although a few will, and they'll probably wonder what took them so long. i've been meticulously deconstructing Richard Bausch all weekend, stealing time here and there for Anna K. It occurs to me that the last time I read it was around this time, 16 years ago -- seperated, living alone, sitting on the floor in a bare house with no furniture and just stoking myself on coffee and smokes and Tolstoy. I'd read it for hours and I loved every minute of it. I always told myself that when I read it again, I'd have my trusty Nabokov at the ready, to go chapter by chapter, just as I've done with so many other books, but I think I'll read him afterwards. It's so humbling reading Nabokov. No matter how close you read anything he lectured on, he's way, way, waaaaaaaaaay ahead of you -- and Tolstoy's his great A-plus master.