nekkid

[freckles_and_doubt]

There's something about the process of choosing books for book club which leaves me floundering and slightly shattered. This morning's particular experience may have been partially due to the dual effects of the curiously disorienting and space-warping navigational challenges of the Waterfront mall (memo to self: stick to the familiar entrance in future, even if it's twelve miles and a seething sea of schoolkids away from the end you want to visit), and this morning's thundering headache. Whatever it is, put me in front of a general fiction shelf and ask me to choose ten books for an eclectic audience of 6 other women, some of whom I don't know all that well, and my brain seizes solid while I whimper gently and attract concerned glances from even the psychotic misanthropes who staff Exclusive. Drool may also be involved.

Part of the problem is that I actually don't read that widely outside sf/fantasy, which is Bad and Wicked, if not downright Evil, in a self-respecting English academic (not that I currently am, actually); in a spirit of self-broadening I ration myself to one sf and one fantasy, plus one crime novel. The other seven choices are wide open. A weird sort of effect kicks in where I know that I should be all Serious and Academic, but know I'm not really, but expect the other book club members to expect me to be anyway, so I try to ratchet the Literary quotient up and down simultaneously, ending up in a sort of mental self-arm-lock, and drool.

Choosing books is actually horribly personal, and makes me feel very exposed, and my so-called academic identity really only makes it worse. I console myself with the thought that today, at any rate, at least some of the choices were essentially random, on account of how the headache was preventing me from seeing straight, and I probably chose a couple of things that were two to the left of where I was actually aiming.

Scored Banks's Algebraist, though, and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, so it can't be all bad.

Comments

[ex-wytchfyn.livejournal.com]

Wait, where's the nekkidness?

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Metaphorical. For a bizarre moment there I thought I was talking to my Evil Landlord, who, as a mere German, Doesn't Get metaphor. Often wilfully.

[bumpycat.livejournal.com]

Your loyal readers are disappointed with the lack of literal nekkidness!

[ex-wytchfyn.livejournal.com]

I metaphor sex, but then she changed her mind.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

aaargh!

[ex-wytchfyn.livejournal.com]

I always hurt the ones I love, see.

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Damn right you do. I was about to post the link to the pirate music CD (mostly with you in mind, actually), and you snuck in first, meaning I now can't post it without looking like a feeble copycat. *wounded*

[(Anonymous)]

May I suggest Cat Scratch Feverby one Sophie Mouette? ;-)

Okay, no, probably not appropriate for a bookclub. Although please feel free to encourage anyone you know to buy it to support your friend who came all the way to South Africa to meet you...

A former co-worker of mine, Anne Easter Smith, has recently published her first book, A Rose for the Crown (historical). I haven't read it, but it might be more appropriate for book club-ness.

Do you scan best-seller lists? That might give you some ideas.

Hugs, Dayle

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I'm planning to acquire Cat Scratch Fever at some stage, probably when I've subdued my credit card a tad... thanks for all the suggestions. The problem is not ideas about what to select, it's the weird mental gymnastics that kick in as I contemplate each possible selection. Sigh. Me, overanalyze much?

Darn

[starmadeshadow.livejournal.com]

Lots to do today, and just spent 2 minutes drooling at your new lj pic. That man cleans up indecently well. I'd really hate to have to choose books for other people to read; maybe it was a pre-emptive headache?

Re: Darn

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Yay with the Aragorn love! (In fact, I think that's the pic from the poster you gave me.) Yup, almost certainly a pre-emptive headache, stress will do that. Sigh. Good luck with your lots to do today!