on book club (briefly)

Myth: If it were not for book club, I would be paging through the last chapters of Stephanie Nolen's 28.

Fact: If it were not for book club, I would have read about three chapters of 28 before the discontinuity between stories made me want to take another break, and I turned to something less brainy. Like a fictionalized biography of Sylvia Plath.

Regardless, I am slowly wading into Saramago's Blindness.

I'm not going to lie to you. It might be over my head. Already, I can tell it's a very important comment on society, and that is what we will discuss at book club next month. I, however, will likely focus on the convoluted (Nobel Prize-winning) writing style.

How do you like this?

To put it simply, this woman could be classed as a prostitute, but the complexity in the web of social relationships, whether by day or night, vertical or horizontal, of the period here described cautions us to avoid a tendency to make hasty and definitive judgments, a mania which, owing to our exaggerated self-confidence, we shall perhaps never be rid of. (p. 21 in Comrade Barbara's hardcover version of the book)

Right. Clearly it's too early to tell whether I will enjoy this work.

random question

Is the blogosphere a competitive space?

I know that's kind of a ridiculous question. I mean, it wouldn't really make sense to think bloggers could scoop each other, the way newspapers do, because not everyone reads the same blogs. But then, not everyone reads both the Post and the Globe, and yet I'm sure they value their A1 victories....

Regardless, I totally beat this blog on the same topic. Yay me and my small (irrelevant? petty?) victories.


Side notes:

1. The latest book club pick is Jose Saramago's Blindness. On one hand, the theme of human survival and dystopia appeals to me. Also, the note on the inside of the hardcover book I scored at Wee Book Inn -- it was a birthday present in 1999 to "Comrade Barbara." This makes me laugh, but also makes me a bit sad (why did Barbara sell the book? was she a student, and couldn't afford to pack her hardcover books? did she hate this book? did she hate the gift-giver?) On the other hand, I am concerned about a lack of dialogue in the book, although a friend reassures me there is dialogue, it just isn't in the same format I'm used to. As a girl who's mother first introduced her to Harlequin romance novels when she was 11, I sort of have a hard time focusing without interesting bits of dialogue every few graphs. I'll keep you posted.
2. Did I already tell you I bought Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine? The thing about a new Klein book is it kind of makes me really excited and faux hippie proud even to own it. It brings me back to my pseudo radical days, when I knew that if you wore a water-drenched scarf around your nose and mouth you stood a better chance against pepper spray. Of course, the reality is, I am no longer the woman who first read No Logo. Rather, I am now a woman who stands in line at Starbucks everyday. Today when my co-worker snarkily commented on the scent of "commercialism and conformity," I sighed. "Yum."
3. A necessary addition to the links list.