Today's blogging challenge has become, can I read an entire book today and still find time for that all important reality television that starts this week? And the answer (for today anyway) was: Yes. Normally, I feel kind of bad about wasting my time on mindless television. But today I feel justified because I've read an entire book. I've earned it. This is actually the first time I've even been able to fit in watching television since I started the blog. I've had to streamline my life to fit in work and blogging. Television and Internet have fallen almost completely to the wayside, and I've begun to throw out the clutter that's been sitting around for ages. I used to look at the clutter and just see clutter, but now I look at it and see time and energy wasters. The clutter stands between me and time that could be spent reading books that are far more interesting than that junk could ever be. But I still have to have some fun, so I spent a little time watching mindless television. I think my brain was relieved that I wasn't forcing it to process anything more today.
Now on to today's book. Here's the description from the back of the book:
"Chris Bohjalian offers an exploration of life in a very small town: a collection of his magazine essays and newspaper columns about the lessons he has learned as an urban refugee in rural Vermont, in the sort of gloriously quirky little village that we thought was long vanished."
Personally, I didn't find the village gloriously quirky as the back cover promised, but I still enjoyed the book. It made me want to travel to Vermont, which I hear is really beautiful. It also made me want to search out more of the author's columns. I'll add that to my list of things to do one day when I have spare time again (otherwise known as the end of the reality t.v. season).
I discovered, after reading this that I've also read another book by this author, Midwives. I read that book about 7 years ago when I was on vacation in Florida. I usually only like to read happy books on vacation but I was lying in the part of our rented condo that we had affectionately called The Burn Unit, recovering from an unpleasant sunburn and I wanted to read about someone who was having a worse day than I was. I enjoyed that book too, but not as much as this one, perhaps because the subject was not as dark and I always gravitated towards happier books, or maybe because I've always found real life so much more interesting than any novel. Well, whatever the reason, Idyll Banter has earned a spot on my overcrowded bookshelves.
I'm not sure what else to write about the book because I've come up against blogging challenge number two, how to write about the book without giving too much of it away. It's more difficult than I thought it would be. But I'm still feeling bitter about the book that I read on Saturday that gave away the endings to several books, so I'm standing firm in my resolve to not give anything away. Also, my brain is resisting going back to having to think after watching mindless television. Tomorrow I'm going to post the blog entry before I sink down into the abyss of pointless reality t.v.
