How Di's Book Blog Saved My Life (Part 2)

This post started as the result of my excoriation (excoriate and all of its derivatives are my favorite blog words...so descriptive...and I would never use them in conversation) of Amy for placing Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen into my hands with nary a warning that it might not be so great. A commentversation (that's my new blog word for a conversation that takes place within the confines of the comment section of a blog post) took place between Amy (see, I used the pretty picture) who has been the unfortunate recipient of my bad book rants and Vicky a new friend who at that point had not even met me in person and was shaking in her boots about the possibility of recommending a substandard book. Vicky has since met me and has seen that I am not entirely terrifying and Vicky has this unique job that allows her to give me free kitchen appliances (I love being a consumer tester...and I'm SO good at it!) So, chances are Vicky, that the fab blender, iron and now electronic wine opener(!!!!) will deter me from publicly humiliating you herein...however, Hurley and I do reserve the right to humiliate you and Donnie at Trivial Pursuit!

And just for the record, I think I DID publicly humiliate Amy regarding her dubious selections of foreign movies and my dismissal of any of her book recommendations that start with "My brother Doug loved this book..." during my tear-jerking speech at her 40th birthday party.

Vicky posted:

As one of the few, or perhaps thousands of bleaders who check Diane's blog daily and as a newbie friend I must say that I am a little nervous about making a book recommendation myself! I proposed one of my favorite authors to Diane via e-mail and she has asked if I have a copy of whichever title is the best to begin with. This presents a quandry. If our intrepid Book Blogger does not care for my suggestion, I am faced with (because this is my first recommendation)permanent exile as a good book resource and potential public humiliation as being such, or perhaps even worse...my recommendation being relagated to the stacks (as see in the pictures) of the "not yet read books." I hear you, Amy!

Amy replied:
 

Vicky,

what can i tell you? you've seen the all too horrible resutls of recommending a "bad" book. But still i say...take the chance. If it's good, you'll be exalted before the thousands and then you can retire on your reputation alone! Consider my small trajectory--I went from probation status on Stolen Child to redemption on Children's Blizzard. I shoud have stopped there...but no, i had to hand off the Anna Quindlen book. My bad.

Recommend the book and go for it. Life is too short not to take chances, and i have found that in all cases except those with old college friends, Diane is incredibly fair and balanced. As well as intellectually brilliant which means she'll be the perfect person to evaluate my daughter's college essays...but i digress.

Don't be put off by my bitter apples Vicky.  She'll be loads nicer to you.

amy

Don't ever hesitate to recommend or loan a book...really, public humiliation is fun or who could explain the wild success of Go Fug Yourself. (Click only if you have several hours to browse this blog...it's seriously addictive.)

Di

Comments

[el-e-e]

Exactly why I never click to Go Fug Yourself. It's a riot but lordy, a TIME SUCKER!

[Vicky]

So just to clarify, free small home appliances is all it takes to get out of being publicly excoriated? (I agree, excoriate is one of those great words in print that does not as easily slide off of the tongue, nor does it sound as good aurally.)

I have decided to take amy’s (Amy’s) advice and set forth my recommendation of my favorite author to Diane and start her on the first of the author’s books, which I read when laid up with a broken pinkie toe at the age of twelve. I know that I have two copies SOMEWHERE of One Child by Torey Hayden but have not been able to lay my hands one either copy. For any interested parties, please visit www.torey-hayden.com for info on the author and her books. Diane will be receiving a copy of One Child in her mailbox sometime shortly, courtesy of Amazon. I have my own opinions of the author’s teaching philosophies and her work in dealing with elective mutism. That being said, Torey’s books are “easy” reads and perhaps not conducive to compelling literary discussion…but nonetheless, her books have always “spoken” to me.

So, here I stand, naked in blogospehere, for Diane and amy, and all to judge.

I WILL add that, though I am a committed non fiction reader...my all time favorite is Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell's great literary fiction contribution to the world.

[amy]

Vicky:

You are a very brave woman. And, if you ever need a blender tested in the highly desireable metro-west region of MA, the odds are good that you will find your book choice HIGHLY supported by yours truly, and in a clever verbal fashion that will be certain to cancel out any possible excoriation that might occur from the blogosphere...

amy

[Di]

Vicky and amy, you humble me with your articulate (and brave) comments. But I worry...you see Vicky, I had one NBF who didn't even get to be my NBF when she and amy struck up an e-mail relationship that now totally excludes me. So I'm a little worried about you two!

I'm very excited about my surprise package from Amazon! I am practicing restraint right now adding things to my Amazon wish list instead of buying in case whoever picks my name at Christmas hasn't learned over my lifetime that a gift certificate for books is ALWAYS the perfect gift!!!!

Love the appliances, but I'm actually much cheaper than that...a bottle of wine and an evening yacking with the girls is as good, if not better. Well, I don't know...I really love the blender.

[amy]

blender...pride...blender...pride...ok, while i know i am risking the remote possibility of earning the opportunity to test a new blender (and vicky, did i mention that i used to be a COPYWRITER? in an AD AGENCY? imagine the customer comment blurb i could write!), i have to say this:

i went to Torey Hayden's web site and i have already READ the book (for my child and adolescent trauma class) and it is NON-FICTION.

Yes, it's a SAFE choice. see my earlier comments on non-fiction, but diane NEVER excoriates nor trashes nor publicly humuliates recommenders (blecommenders?) of non-fiction...and who amoung us would? it's one thing to diss fiction (hate the writer, hated the characters, style sucked, grammar was that of a five-year old (see Brown, Dan in DaVinci Code)--but dissing non-fiction says something about the reader, and usually not something good. "I didn't find it that interesting" implies the reader has limited range of interest. "It was boring" might mean you have the attention span of a flea. "It was too complicated" reeks of unintelligence and unveils that we didn't really pay attention to certain classes in college. So, when reading recommended non-fiction, we want to sound bright "LOVED the book about the plague and i see now how it all relates to Avian Bird Flu", informed "After reading biographies of Lincoln, Washington, FDR, Carter, Clinton, Reagan and Eisenhower, I realize that our current president has nothing in common with any of them", and clever "Now i understand the interplay of religion and politics in today's highly charged emotional and social playing fields since reading The End of Faith".

so bleaders, rest assured that Vicky will most likely be granted a bye from Di's Book Blog, and i will be combing my shelves for a non-fiction book to recommend for my re-entry into the public (humiliation) arena.

amy

[Vicky]

Ah, the blender. The blender is getting quite a bit of notoriety on this blog. (“blogoriety”? – This is fun) For those that may be curious about the blender that has mentioned a few times (shameless plug coming), please see www.osterfusion.com. amy, I am sorry to tell you that Diane got the last of the blenders. Entries for the testing of this particular product are closed at this time. But never fear, there will be more.

However, at the risk of being mocked and ridiculed, I must say that I timidly disagree with your assessment of non-fiction. I have read some non-fiction books that would rate as a waste of one’s time.

Case in point; I recently picked up a copy of Bunny Tales by Izabella St. James. (I have a tendency to purchase and read for purely salacious reasons.) She was one of Hugh Hefner’s numerous blond girlfriends before he settled down to an apparently more manageable 3 as seen on E’s “The Girls Next Door.” I had seen a couple episodes (I know, I know, WHY you ask? Because it is like watching a train wreck…you don’t want to see it but you also cannot tear your eyes away from the carnage) and was curious to read how Hef conducted himself behind closed doors and how exactly the time-sharing aspect of having multiple, simultaneous relationships would work. On the show, the 3 remaining girlfriends are sickeningly simpering and evasive when directly asked about the details of their relationship with Hef. (I know that I am also losing FAST points with any feminist bleaders out there who believe the man is the devil incarnate. But that is a different discussion altogether.) For all of my hopes of enjoying a guilty, titillating (pun intended) “tell all”, the book was a disappointment. Only a few paragraphs on what EXACTLY happens in that mansion and I had to wade through many of the author’s contradictions, misspellings and holier-than-thou pontifications to get there.

So you see amy, there can be bad non-fiction books. And I have read several of them. And I have also exposed myself (naked again in the blogosphere) as a reader of trash.

And Di, you don’t have to utilize the wish list on Amazon. Just throw things into your cart. Amazon will keep them there (aren’t they clever) until you go to purchase. Just review your cart before you pay. (Interesting insight into the online giant is Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the dot com Juggernaut by James Marcus)

[Di]

My personal opinion is that I am better at weeding out non-fiction that I don't want to read than fiction. I mean, my Mom was telling me about this thing about the Bush admin and what they knew when and I knew, not my kind of book. Yet I read the almost 800 page Enron book.

I think the point is that non-fiction books provide less fodder for discussion in a book group. The facts are not necessarily arguable, so you are left with the writer's style and positioning. There are DEFINITELY exceptions.

But I think Amy is speaking from a position of frustration that her book group has been consistently picking more non-fiction than fiction.

So, I probably wouldn't have read the bunny book unless someone had strongly recommended it in which case, if you are saying it was a waste of time, they probably would get excoriated herein.