Despair: (n) utter loss of hope

This week I understand what my patrons mean when they say they don’t want a depressing book. I read (or listened to, rather) Chuck Palahniuk’s Diary: a Novel. Although my husband liked it a lot, I felt the height of despair not just when it was done, but throughout. In a word, it was bleak. Normally, I’d have never even finished it, but it was our joint car audiobook and a short one at that. As a text, it had many qualities in terms of concept, plot, and writing style, but I’d never inflict it on anyone unless I know for certain that they go for these types of things. Ugh.

I did actually survive last week’s business, and even more importantly, got through the fourth book. Entitled Dictionary Days: a Defining Passion, and written by Ilan Stavans, I thought it was very insightful. The author, whose third or fourth language is English, has a passion for vocabulary and his OED. The text is a medley of memoir, rumination, translation and lexicography, and the combination works very well. In mood it reminded me of Alberto Manguel’s A Reading Diary, even though the contents are nowhere near the same. I have a weakness for luscious words too, which helps. This is another selection for my father, as it gives the mind a lot to chew on. Get your post-its ready.

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[Dad]

Okay, so I have been caught using Post-It Flags. Like markers on a map, flags enable me to return to special places and particular thoughts that bear revisiting.

Manguel’s A Reading Diary is a stream-of-consciousness look at a dozen literary classics. I have managed to pluck out of the stream a hundred or so gold nuggets. Like Manguel’s take on time: "Time is made of consecutive moments. We are different people in each of these moments."

These nuggets are precious; I expect that the more I return to them, think about them, connect them up, the more enriching they will become.

Manguel is a reader's reader. So how he views fiction - "all business is conducted between the characters and the reader; the author is absent" - resonates.

Travel and time have made him philosophical about life. He takes the mundane seriously and the serious lightly: "It might be useful to compile a list of things that don’t really matter. Such a list would alleviate a lot of worrying."

For a reader whose mind wanders and whose thoughts tumble and twist into tangled threads, Post-It Flags do the same.