I have always been a reader. Before the days of my Kindle, I have been known to read a book and then use it to prop up a wobbly sofa leg. There have been a few times when I have actually removed the book, looked at the title and reread it, disregarding the sofa leg-sized indentation reaching all the way through the paperback tome.
I am not particularly a discriminating reader, giving a lot of books the benefit of the doubt if I want to distract my mind from worries. I do have some standards and they are not necessarily low: I stop reading books in which the author devotes several pages to how disgusted he is with a thinly-disguised political leader or stops his story to promote some “cause”. I also do not read porny stuff, and find it annoying when a good writer adds it gratuitously.
Now that I have my Kindle – which I am NOT going to use to prop up furniture – I am reading more than ever and there’s the rub. Every morning, Amazon drops by my email box to tell me of the Daily Deal. You have to watch yourself because those 99 cent and a $1.99 purchases can add up.
Today’s offerring has given me a lift in the title: The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. I clicked on the book (and you can, too, right HERE) and decided it was not for me. The gist of the story is that an active lady gets a debilitating illness and spends a lot of time observing the antics of a snail living on a bedside plant. One reviewer points out there is romance in the book, although I doubt you can get too graphic with a snail. What do they do? Rip their shells off in the heat of passion on an African Violet?
And, by the way, where did the suitor snails come from? I got the idea this was about a girl and her snail.
I don’t believe that it is not a well-written book; it is just at this time I do not want to think about having only the energy to document a snail on a plant. Now, of course, if the title were The Sound of a Wild Snail ______, I might think differently. Oh, that would break one of my main rules . . . although every rule has exception, dontcha know.
Hi:
Actually, you would be surprised. Snail’s are quite famous for the quality of their love lives which are quite unique in the animal world. Seriously! There is an entire chapter just on that. They are also hermaphrodites but prefer each other. ~ETB
The decision to not use your Kindle as a leg propper upper is a good one. To choose to not get involved in a snail romance book might also be a good one. I’m a little confused as how a snail on a houseplant can be a wild snail… maybe it ran indoors away from the snail colony and that is what makes it wild.
I know a hermaphrodite too. Seriously, a real live hermaphrodite, although I think they are a she now, not quite sure. One of those things you don’t really ask about but it was quite the stir in our small town. I mean how do you explain to your kids that someone has parts of both? So nobody explained and the poor person had quite the devil of a time in school. Living quite well now though once a decision was made as to what gender to actually be. I believe DNA helped with that.
Okay now… back to snails, Elisabeth kind of took me on a rabbit trail there.
I wonder if the book would be more appealing if it dealt with rabbits instead of snails. Oh wait, that would be guaranteed to be a rule breaker. You know how rabbits are.