We've just finished listening to "The Door-to-Door Bookstore" by Carsten Henn, as an audiobook from the public library. It was delightful. You couldn't tell how delightful from the odd title or the cover art. Although the reviews were good, it was something more than expected.
Now I have the task of selecting our next book. I scan a list of best-sellers, passing some by because the titles put me off. I waste an hour reading synopses, and discard them all because we've been there too many times: love in wartime, family sagas, serial killer thrillers, sci-fi fantasy, apocalypse, time travelers, people behaving badly, courtroom dramas. I hunt for a mystery author we have enjoyed before only to find that she's trying too hard to get our attention and her voice has gone dark and ugly. Enough of that. Novels should provide novelty, not PTSD.
On occasion, I search the library for random key words to see what comes up. Books will speak for themselves if we let them. Now and then we stumble into delight and stay awhile.
A billion years of serendipity
equipped us with ideas, voice and lore
to tell the meaning of what soon might be,
a dark and ugly end.
Or something more.
And then I was waiting for something more! Did you find the next book?
ReplyDeleteYes, we found another book. And there is always something more.
Delete