I Prefer Real Books Over Digital Books
I should stop impulse-ordering books. Typically I'll see a great quote online or in something I'm reading and think "Wow I wish I could write like that." So I check the title of the book it came from and search the library catalogue for it. If the library doesn't have it I go online and order it, paperback and 'used - as new' if I can find it and the shipping is reasonable.
BUT - it seems that all too often the book is not up to the standard of the quote that was taken from it; or the writing is too this or that - over my head, airy-fairy, high-faloot'n, maybe just plain boring. The latest example is:
(the quote) "Between the experience of living a normal life at this moment on the planet and the public narrative being offered to give a sense to that life, the empty space, the gap, is enormous."
I really liked that. It's from "The Shape of a Pocket" by John Berger, quoted by Mark Abley in "The Prodigal Tongue." I've now acquired The Shape of a Pocket and struggled through the first chapter. Won't be reading any more. It's mostly high-flown almost woo-woo rhetoric about paintings, painters and some mystical spiritual relationship between them. Plus a ton of references to artists and their works of which I know nothing. Googling them became tiring very quickly.
OK end of rant but I'm going to be a lot more hesitant to buy books I can't peek into first.
BUT - it seems that all too often the book is not up to the standard of the quote that was taken from it; or the writing is too this or that - over my head, airy-fairy, high-faloot'n, maybe just plain boring. The latest example is:
(the quote) "Between the experience of living a normal life at this moment on the planet and the public narrative being offered to give a sense to that life, the empty space, the gap, is enormous."
I really liked that. It's from "The Shape of a Pocket" by John Berger, quoted by Mark Abley in "The Prodigal Tongue." I've now acquired The Shape of a Pocket and struggled through the first chapter. Won't be reading any more. It's mostly high-flown almost woo-woo rhetoric about paintings, painters and some mystical spiritual relationship between them. Plus a ton of references to artists and their works of which I know nothing. Googling them became tiring very quickly.
OK end of rant but I'm going to be a lot more hesitant to buy books I can't peek into first.
