I would never attempt to dissuade anyone from... • The Automaton

I would never attempt to dissuade anyone from reading a book. But please, if you’re reading a book that’s killing you, put it down and read something else, just as you would reach for the remote if you weren’t enjoying a TV programme. Your failure to enjoy a highly rated novel doesn’t mean you’re dim — you may find that Graham Greene is more to your taste, or Stephen Hawking, or Iris Murdoch, or Ian Rankin. Dickens, Stephen King, whoever. It doesn’t matter. All I know is that you can get very little from a book that is making you weep with the effort of reading it. You won’t remember it, and you’ll learn nothing from it, and you’ll be less likely to choose a book over Big Brother next time you have a choice.

Nick Hornby, The Complete Polysyllabic Spree (currently reading, alongside Ribblestrop by Andy Mulligan)

Three new books arrived in the mail yesterday.

I looked far and wide for these books, but the three major bookstore chains in the country were more or less a failure in handing me any and all of the three. So, it wasn’t long before I finally turned to the Internet and its profusion of online stores. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and eBay, were among my first destinations, but, alas, the price of international shipping was a lot higher than the price of the goods themselves. I was crestfallen.

Then, last Sunday, as a result of Googling for an available copy of another book I’ve been dying to lay my hands on, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, I stumbled upon a local online specialty bookstore called Avalon.ph. I remembered the name of the Web site from a couple of years ago, when it provided a copy of Baudolino by Umberto Eco to be given away in a radio contest, which I gladly won. Unfortunately, the store had no copy of House of Leaves available, at least one that wasn’t prohibitively priced (a signed copy was available, but it came with a really hefty price tag). Fortunately, though, three of the books on my mental wishlist were in stock and inexpensive. I placed my order, convulsively.

Now, I have three more titles, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, to add to my unfathomably long queue of books to read before I die. Decidedly more than enough to keep me uninterested in Big Brother.