Thursday, May 04, 2006

Choosing a book

Trying to decide what to read next.

I want something light, something without politics. I read a chapter of China Miéville's Iron Council and decide the language is too rich for me to digest right now, and it is far too political, even if this revolution brews in a wholly imagined world.

I go through the stack (there's another stack downstairs, but that's far too far away to be relevant) and methodically eliminate the possiblities. I'm left with two books for closer inspection and begin to compare blurbs.

One book:
"Ingenious... Sparkling with erudition."

The other book:
"I admire this ingenious, erudite book."

What kind of choice is that? Who wants erudition?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We're still recovering from "Middlemarch", aren't we? I get a little green at the gills when I pick books out these days.

My favorite thing to do after a long book is to read one of Agatha Christie's mysteries - they're like lemonade! So refreshing! - but I don't have any good advice beyond that. Although maybe it would be fun to read both of your blurb books and see which one is more 'ingenious'.

 
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