First of all, a little housecleaning. As has become evident, the book club is currently on a little hiatus. We will probably start back up some time in the summer. Sometime between now and then there will be a little conversation on Devil in the White City. I am finding it difficult to gather my thoughts as regard non-fiction. I am trained to analyze fiction. That said, I’m sure I’ll have something in a bit.
In the meantime, I have something neat that I think people might be interested in. It’s called ‘One Book, One Twitter’. Sort of like the Big Read program that various cities put on, the goal is to get a whole mess of people reading and talking about the same book. Only, this is not limited by geography, just who you follow on Twitter. The project is being spearheaded by Jeff Howe of Wired and Crowdsourcing.
They’ve already completed voting for their first book, and it is going to be American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Since Gaiman is, as some of you know, one of my favorite authors, I have already read this one, but I am looking forward to the opportunity to reread and discuss it with an unwieldy number of people on Twitter. I am a big fan of Twitter, and would be happy to discuss the pros and cons of it as a social media with anyone who is interested. I am excited to see how this experiment goes.
To join the conversation, follow @1b1t2010 and read hashtag #1b1t.
For more information:
william
Kate
Kay Pharr
megancastellan
Oh, hey! Good, maybe that will make me read ‘American Gods’ finally, as I’ve started it several times, and failed miserably to finish.
And, I admit, I had the same reaction to ‘Devil in the White City’ as I have with Karen Armstrong.
Wait, I don’t remember your response to Karen Armstrong. Please enlighten?
She says all these things, very specific things, and how can she possibly know that? Like, I’m fine with being of the opinion that historical figures did certain things (rode trains, etc). But can you say with certainty that, as he rode the train that day, under the burnt ombre sky, as the winter wind whipped his beard, he gazed upwards in appreciation and sipped a fine brandy, while filled with a slight melancholy as he thought of the wife and child he left behind to work on the large fair he might never see completed, because of his horrendous palsy?
Nope. Now you’re reaching, and straying into historical midrash, which, while awesome in its own right, needs an appropriate warning label.
Oh, I see.
Yes, absolutely, there is a lot of historical midrash in this. But how dry it would be otherwise! This is why I think I tend towards diaries and memoirs for my historical readings. I do require that a narrative be constructed, or I get bored and wander off. I tend to assume that he draws his opinions and speculations at least in part from someone’s letters or diaries, otherwise he would have to be labeled as historical fiction, surely? And this is certainly not that. Historical fiction is paced a bit more quickly, generally.