A donation to the shelf by a member. Thank you!

I picked this up at Curves today to see if my son was interested in reading it. He is reading American PAstoral now. I have a second copy and will read that, then report back here with my thoughts.

Conversation (by email) with guyczuk regarding the book:

bookczuk wrote: I started The Plot Against America. I like it, except I wish Mr Roth would use more periods. I get lost in the length of his sentences! Blindness is next up.

guyczuk wrote: Blindness has longer sentences, but they're pretty readable. In Roth's case, the sentence length reflects Jewish neuroses, while in Saramago's case, the sentence length reflects the beauty of the universe.

bookczuk wrote: I grew up surrounded by Jewish neuroses.. do I have to read about them, too? Sigh. I'll push on, but Blindness may be the light at the end of the tunnel...

But, the end result is, I really thought this a fantastic book. And I also thought it a very frightening book. How easily we trust and believe what makes us comfortable. The scariest part for me was when I found myself nodding and accepting the statements of one of the foreign governments over the other one, simply because what they were saying was more to my liking and beliefs. It suddenly became clear to me why some people, who I view as nut cases, see themselves as in the right so often.

Roth has come a long way since Portnoy's Complaint. Here is a recent video of him.

RELEASE NOTES:

This book is being released (hopefully) at the Second Annual Great Book Give Away, sponsored by Charleston BookCrossers. Look for us at the corner of King and Calhoun at Marion Square on Dec 1 after the Reindeer Run. We'll be passing out books to passers by. Stop by, say hi and pick up a book!

If you're new to BookCrossing, welcome! You have not only found yourself a good book, but a whole community of booklovers dedicated to sharing books with each other and the world at large. I hope you'll stick around a bit and get to know BookCrossing --maybe even make a journal entry on this book. You may choose to remain anonymous or to join (its free!) Feel free to read and keep this book, or to pass it on to a friend or even set it out "in the wild" for someone else to find like you did. If you do choose to join and journal, then you can watch the book as it travels- You'll be alerted by email each time someone makes another journal entry. It's all confidential (you're known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address), free, and spam-free. Happy reading!

PS And if you find yourself liking BookCrossing, Charleston has an active group of BookCrossers who meet monthly (second Saturday of the month) at various spots in the Tri-county area. Come join us! For more information, see our webpage here! Be on the lookout for other books left in the "Wild"!