Back in the day when every non reader decided they wanted to "start reading" Oprah made more then a few mens fortunes by promoting their books. Take any dour fiction novel, add pathos and somewhere the words arid, urine and grandma and BANG - it was an Oprah book. I'm not sure what it says about me but I like my books - like my eggs and a nice souffle - light and fluffy. i want the menopausal caterer to solve the crime, or the retired nun to eek out the runaway. True life, true crime holds no appeal for me.
I just don't need to read it. Or see it. Bury my head in the sand? Yup. You betcha. I don't need to experience trauma vicariously to feel alive. The fictionalized rape of a little black girl by the town sheriff leading to her eventual marriage to a brutal wife beater? Why? I mean whats the point? So I know how it was in the 60s down south? So I know that people suffer? I know. I read the Economist at breakfast thank you. I'm all set with violence in Juarez, the run-off election in Zimbabwe and that rape has finally been recognized as a war tool.
I really really don't need to sit in the safety and comfort of my bedroom and read something so awful that it makes me want to cry.
And ruins my day.
And has my husband bewildered.
"Just put it down" he tosses over his shoulder as he reconfigures my printer settings.
"I'm going to" I say "I just want to skim it to see how it ends"
"It's going to end well, you think?"
"It has to. It's a book."
It didn't.
It was god fucking awful.
What the fuck is WRONG with Anna Quindlan. Shit. Enough out of her. I dealt with her with The One True Thing. I thought our relationship was over.
I came out of the bedroom sobbing. Gulping. Tears down my face.
"It didn't end well" I cried into the front of Doug's shirt.
He isn't all that nurturing, I thought as he peeled me off and turned back to his keyboard.
"Yeh, I didn't think it sounded like it was going to."
"Go throw the book away please" I asked him.
"What?"
"Can you go take the book and throw it away?"
He ignored me.
Which leads me to FRIENDS. And the episode where Joey and Rachel switch favorite books...
Joey: Beth is really, really sick. Jo's there, but I don't think there's anything she can do.
Rachel: Joey?
Joey: Yeah?
Rachel: You want to put the book in the freezer?
I'm on my way downstairs to chuck it.
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