Books

[chantico]

J and I have been trying to read books together in an effort to have something to talk about as we're both pretty exhausted these days and our individual ways of relaxing don't lend themselves to scintillating conversation-- the ins and outs of cataloging my music or organizing my art supplies are riveting, let me tell you. We picked American Gods as our first foray, since I have found memories but had forgotten much of the book and he'd tried it once and dropped it a few chapters in. I still like it, he found it entertaining but otherwise unmemorable. It succeeded, though, in getting us to talk. Tearing it into little pieces to talk about what worked for us and what didn't has been pretty massively entertaining, and a little cathartic. In a time when I'm terrified of moving ahead with the book because I'm scared of putting something out there that isn't perfect in every way, it's nice to take a book by a very popular, very acclaimed writer that is itself very popular and acclaimed and find that, yes, Virginia, it too is flawed. Our biggest shared issue was the vigil, and Shadow's agency, and how Gaiman really drops the ball for both of us in having the text support Shadow's change from passive observer to active participant in his destiny. This probably explains a lot of why I like the book much more than J-- he enjoys very, very active characters, and I get into a groove of liking the observer role.