August 26, 2004
Light Reading
Regular readers of kittysays know that the book club I belong to (the one comprised entirely of women) has made some, um, interesting book selections in the past. We read Steve Martin's novellas, assorted pieces of trash, and even a romance novel, for God's sake. It's been brutal.
To the rescue came M's boyfriend. M is a founding member of book club, and is a smart chickadee. She's not an avid reader, but for that, she can be forgiven. She enjoys reading enough, I just don't think she'd done a great deal of pleasure reading prior to the inception of our book club -- nothing wrong with that.
She mentioned to her boyfriend, a life-long avid reader, that we were trying to select a book for our next club meeting. I had suggested The Devil Wears Prada -- light, brief and not overly taxing. I figured it was a shoo-in (no pun intended).
M's boyfriend says, "Oh, no, no, no. You need something post-modern." Um, problem. Anything post-modern likely involves thought, which isn't usually happening in our club. "You could get something post-modern, but approachable." Approachability is good, but subject matter the ladies will bother to read is even better. "I'll find some books for you that would lend themselves to good discussions." Clearly he misses the point. It's not like we actually discuss any of these books we pointlessly assign ourselves.
He dutifully researched post-modern books on google, and came up with the following suggestions:
End Zone, by Don DeLillo. He describes it as a "football/fear of nuclear holocaust novel". For my regular readers, you know I don't even understand the rules of football. I'd have to pass on this one.
Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut. Amazon.com says of this book: "Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore." Although I've always wanted to read it, this might not be the pick for the nail-polish wearing, bikini-wax discussing all female book club. Just a guess.
If On A Winter's Night A Traveler, by Italo Calvino. Amazon describes it as an "experimental text" (I can see some book club members already rolling their eyes), and M's boyfriend says, "some who read it hate it because of a lack of a "story". Great pick! Next victim.........
Ultimately, we did use one of M's boyfriend's suggestions. Our next book club pick? White Noise, by Don DeLillo. An update on how we did attempting to both read and discuss this book will surely follow.
Posted by Kitty at August 26, 2004 03:11 PM
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