It's not that blogging is real work, it's that writing tends to expand beyond the time available...on Thursday I wrote a short document that took a good six hours out of my work day, and bing went the blog.
Then it was time to write a review of a book from BookTasters. Well...the BookTasters generally read very light, frivolous books; fiction, memoirs, poetry. I volunteered to read this particular book because it's a big long college textbook, which I didn't think would get much love from other Book Tasters whose reviews I've read. I expected it to be very dry and slow reading, which it was. I did not expect to feel as much distaste for the subject as I felt. I thought, "Oh well, business management and motivational psychology are topics only Scott Adams can make fun to read." But then, while reading, I kept thinking of things Scott Adams, Charlotte Iserbyt, and others have written and thinking, "This is not a genuine new trend. Can't be. This is some sort of plot to destroy the economy altogether. This is vile." I did note some places where the author seemed to be sympathizing with his audience, and with Reason, about the undesirability of the business practices his book is about. So, write a snarky review, or write no review at all? Oh dear, oh dear. Contrary to some writers' belief, reviewers do not really enjoy sabotaging living writers. Today's book review is a classic family-friendly autobiography, published in 1902, author long dead...and the brutal truth is that although I disagree with her opinions on some things and raise questions about the usefulness of her book, I think the book is still useful and the author is still admirable. I wish I'd been able to say that much for a new book by a living author this morning.
However. Which books pleasantly surprised other bloggers? Only six bloggers posted to LongAndShortReviews. Links to which book surprised whom and why are there; I can't replicate their link widget on this page, that'd be copyright infringement. They chose, in alphabetical order:
Backman, Fredrik, A Man Called Ove
Cleary, Beverly, Beezus and Ramona
Cruz, Angie, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water
Cosimano, Elle, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It
Friedman, Michael Jan, All Good Things
Moffat, Stephen, Day of the Doctor
McCaffrey, Anne, The Dragon Riders of Pern (people lost interest in this series after the first 15 or 20 books, so it can be surprising to go back and remember just why this first trilogy, and the junior companion, The Harper Hall of Pern, gave so much pleasure to so many)
McCullough, Colleen, The First Man in Rome
Osman, Richard, The Thursday Murder Club
Powell, Richard, Pioneer Go Home
Quinn, Meghan, Resting Scrooge Face
Sadler, Barry, Casca the Eternal Mercenary
Watson, Brad, Miss Jane (gross-out warning!)
White, Wayne, Cold
Another correspondent did a survey of Black History Month recommendations. If the six bloggers had listed only six books I would have tried to round those up here, too. Since they've given us a longish list I'll post the Black History books next week.
Also next week I will put up that post about what Giant did that other supermarkets can and should be doing. It's a last-minute interpolation into a series, a bit of an interruption, but worth sharing with supermarket managers.
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