Ship of Theseus

Am I lazy?

Short answer: Yes. 

It's taken me several days to come up with a partial review. Go me! Anyway, here's an update.

S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst. Behold its beauty!

I'm currently in the midst of the prettiest book I've ever read. Pretty, not so much in the content but in the actual layout of the novel. As soon as I picked it up, I was giddy with excitement and took about an hour just to bask in the glow of it. (Also to look at all the cool insert things because they are awesome). It's that beautiful. And besides just being a damn good-looking book, the layout serves a purpose. It's got a whole bunch of notes going on that serve as a second plot and oh boy. This double plot thing is great.

This is probably the most meta book I've encountered. So there is a story within a story thing going on here; an actual novel called Ship of Theseus written by the fictional (and elusive) V.M. Straka. The "main" story focuses on the character S. who has lost his memory and is kidnapped by a mysterious crew.

Okay, simple enough.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE. FOR ONLY $19.99 (per month + shipping and handling) YOU GET A SECOND STORY ABSOLUTELY FREE.

Enter the second story.

Written in the margins of this novel are notes between two college students (Jen and Eric), discussing the novel and the enigmatic author. In fact, they are trying to come up with the identity of Mr. Straka because he's been at the center of conspiracies and has a bunch of enemies and he might be dead but maybe not and also no one knows who he is.

So it's reading a story and reading a story about people reading the same story as you. Just wrap your mind around that for a second.

I'll be honest now (not that I haven't been thus far.... not sure why I started a sentence like this.), I am only on chapter two of this bad boy. It takes bit getting used to and I've read a little slower than usual because I have to piece together the notes with the main novel. So far I'm enjoying the "figure out who the author is" story line a tad more than the novel-within-the-novel plot. We'll see what happens by the end though, won't we?

Straka's writing is quite visual and the question of identity seems to be a main theme through what I've read. Who is Straka? Who is S.? Who does Jen want to become, and who is Eric now that his life purpose is being shoved down the toilet?

I'm perfectly happy with this as it is identity is an interesting concept to me.

Anyway, back to reading. I'll update when I finish. 

An Introduction

I won't say that I've decided to start blogging again for purely altruistic reasons. (Not that I think blogging is altruistic. Rather it's very "me, me, me.") But giving out book reviews isn't the most selfish thing either.

Anyhow, I really just want free books off netgalley, and the more I blog the better chance I have of that. So you, whoever you may be, are now able to get a couple reviews and I will (hopefully) get a couple books along the way.

Win-win, right?

An actual review to come soon!