(Future Consumer of Coq au Vin)
The weekend came and went, as they do, all that they do. Weekends are lazy, stupid, and unemployed.
I did read portions of several books on Sunday afternoon. I could not settle in to one. They were either too dark, too much of an academic study, or the fictive writing was simply bad. I have been trying to read through a few recommendations and they are mostly terrible. I have to stop letting Amazon suggest reading material for me. I get sucked in, thinking that I'll find out about some cool new writers to which I am currently oblivious, but then I get this book that 487 people rated as a 5 star masterpiece and it turns out to be limping twaddle, the pages sag in my hand as I turn them ever more slowly.
I have a stack of partially read books right now that all qualify; pure bunkum.
I received Lawrence Osborne's Hunters In The Dark but have not started reading it yet, which is lucky for me as it will likely save me from the seemingly endless supply of bound drivel piling up around me. The debut book by Callan Wink is promising, semi-recommended by CS.
As for auto-recommendations…. When will I learn that Amazon is not my friend. When it comes to books and music they are that annoying acquaintance that you are expected to nod politely at while they drone on about their last triumph of mediocrity, having already forgotten the artist/writer/title/etc of the work that they just impressed upon you as being "life changing." Some of it does represent a life change, to be sure, though rarely in the way that one might hope. When you are done reading some books you have less life left, fewer hours remain.
Recommendations are best made from those whose tastes in the given form you esteem, all else is rarity and coincidence, if not miracle or mystery. Amazon's friend-algorithm is about as good a companion as is Siri. It is a form of ambient knowledge, one which is useless because anybody can find it. Even worse: they are encouraged to contribute.
If you want to participate in democracy than attach a book that you've always wanted to read to each of the candidates and force yourself to read it, depending on who wins. It'll help take your mind off which version of the end-times we are left with... Choose carefully. If Mein Trumpf wins you read Graves' I, Claudius, etc.
I go into the city tonight to serve my friends warm plates of Coq au Vin tonight. I've substituted a certain style of living for a specific style of eating. I will fall asleep at their house at a sensible time, curled up like a kitten, then awaking slowly from a deep sleep, stretching my limbs into the air around me, reaching for the invisible stars still twirling across my eyes as they fade. As if I was free to read as I please and that it was a weekend morning once again.
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