Biblioracle: Opting out of a Boo Boo

I get it. It can be exciting when a book breaks through the cloud of Honey Boo Boo and "Dancing with the Stars" talk and becomes part of the larger cultural conversation. Reading is an inherently solo pursuit, and it can get lonely outside the monthly meeting of our book club, so when "Fifty Shades of Grey" becomes a bona fide watercooler topic, many of us figure we might as well give in and see what all the fuss is about.

But maybe we shouldn't.


This piece first ran in Printers Row Journal, delivered to Printers Row members with the Sunday Chicago Tribune and by digital edition via email. Click here to learn about joining Printers Row.


I believe that when it comes to book selection, we're usually better served to march to the beat of our own drummer, or at least the beat of a weekly columnist who knows exactly what you should be reading.

(That would be me.)

If anyone knew what was going to cause a particular book to become a phenomenon, we would see it happening much more often, but no one understands the alchemy that turns a modestly published British book about a boarding school for pint-sized wizards into "Harry Potter," or chaste vampire romance into "Twilight," or even repurposed "Twilight" fan fiction into "Fifty Shades of Grey."

One thing we can be sure of is that there is no particular correlation between quality and the books that hit the zeitgeist. No offense intended to its fans, but it seems near impossible to argue that "Fifty Shades" is "good." "Enjoyable" perhaps, but this is not the same thing as "good." If you will put a box of Chips Ahoy! cookies in front of me, I will eat them until they are gone because my two favorite food groups are sugar and chocolate. But these are not the same thing as my mother's homemade chocolate chip cookies. When I finish my box of Chips Ahoy! cookies, I feel guilty and vaguely disgusted with myself. When I eat a dozen of my mom's cookies in rapid succession, I am infused with the love that went into those cookies.

This is not to say that breakout books aren't at least sometimes good. "The Help" was a relatively recent bolt out of the blue that clung to the best-seller list like Donald Trump's hair to his forehead. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" was another unlikely sales juggernaut that also had some fresh things to say within the suspense genre.

"Gone Girl" is perhaps this year's surprise breakthrough. In a recent batch of requests for my Biblioracular wisdom, five out of seven lists of recent reads included "Gone Girl." I think it's a terrific book, but it is most assuredly not a book that everyone is going to enjoy. If one of your requirements is "sympathetic" characters, "Gone Girl" is not the book for you.

Similarly, if you have a low threshold for violence, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" will turn your stomach sour faster than a box of Chips Ahoy!

Books are not, and never will be, mass media. When I read a good book, it feels like a custom job, built just for me, like the author somehow got inside my consciousness and put some portion of it on the page for my enjoyment.

Just as you could watch 30 seconds of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" and know whether it's the show for you, the same is true of books. And while watching Ms. Boo Boo only uses half an hour of your time, reading the "wrong" book can occupy days or even weeks.

The opportunity cost of going with the herd is too great. When it comes to book choice, let your freak flag fly.

Biblioracle John Warner is the author of "The Funny Man." Follow him on Twitter @Biblioracle.

The Biblioracle offers his recommendations

1. "Canada" by Richard Ford

2. "Free Will" by Sam Harris

3. "The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore" by Benjamin Hale

4. "Blue Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson

5. "Green Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson

— Judson F., Albuquerque, N.M.

On the surface, these books seem very disparate, Richard Ford resolutely "realist" and Kim Stanley Robinson one of our best contemporary classic sci-fi writers. What all of these have in common, though, is a concern with morality and choice. For that reason, I've got to go with "Wise Blood" by Flannery O'Connor.

1. "Primeval and Other Times" by Olga Tokarczuk

2. "Lightning Rods" by Helen DeWitt

3. "But for the Lovers" by Wilfrido Nolledo

4. "Every Love Story is a Ghost Story" by D.T. Max

5. "The Devil in Silver" by Victor LaValle

— Sean F., Brooklyn, N.Y.

Here is a reader who prefers the lesser-trod path. For Sean, an odd little book from an interesting indie press (Red Lemonade), "Zazen" by Vanessa Veselka.

1. "Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly

2. "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

3. "The Language of Flowers" by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

4. "The Life of Objects" by Susanna Moore

5. "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson

— Joyce C., Crown Point, Ind.

 

There are always some books that defy my rule that a book can't be all things to all people. One of them is what Joyce should read next, Katherine Boo's "Behind the Beautiful Forevers."

Copyright © 2018, Chicago Tribune
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