At least books don't get moldy.
And here is the point where I should announce the next book giveaway, right? It's The New Kings of Nonfiction. It's over 400 pages, and I am currently bogged down somewhere in the middle of it. Not that it isn't a good book, mind you; but it's a collection of nonfiction pieces compiled by Ira Glass (of This American Life fame), so my interest level fluctuates according to which piece I am reading.
What disturbs me is this: I recognized one of the pieces, an essay by Malcolm Gladwell that I remembered reading (and enjoying) in The New Yorker a few years ago. Well, maybe as many as 6 years ago, even. Or 4? Maybe it was only 4. Annoyed I couldn't remember, I turned to the page in the book that gives the copyright dates of the different essays. Yes, there it was.
Published in The New Yorker in 1999.
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When reading, beware of wormholes... |
14 years...that's more than a decade, so why did it seem like I had read it recently? In 1999, Brian, Rachel, and Susie hadn't even been born yet. I first read that Gladwell essay in a completely different era, back when I was still a youngish mother of three with a face that didn't sag, when I had only a dial-up connection and dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Apparently, I blinked, and 14 years flew by. Which means, next thing I know, I am going to be eligible for Medicare. This whole passage of time phenomenon freaks me out.
Anyway, I should be done with this wormhole/book in a day or two. Leave a comment if you are interested in being the next person to read it!
[Book image: Goodreads]
[Wormhole image: Radio Freethinker]
Oooh! Pick me! Pick me! I love Ira Glass!!
ReplyDeleteI kind of freak out every time I think of college as not being ancient history and realize it was twenty years ago. It does go by in a blink.
ReplyDeleteYay! Can't wait to get it....we are heading out on a beach vacation soon...maybe I will get it on time. Yes, I said beach vacation. You know....we big families have to travel in the off season to be able to afford things. We aren't even going to Florida....but, South Carolina! I can just seem myself bundled up in my mittens on the beach reading the book! :)
ReplyDeleteHappily, I believe Gladwell to be rather timeless.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to your lucky winner!
i am excited to read it! That happens to me when i think about say celebrities that died or shows that went off the air. DH and i will have arguments like "that was before Parker" and I will say "surely we had Olivia by that time..i remember"...time machine i'll tell ya!
ReplyDeleteLiz D
userdv4264@aol.com
Ooh I'm curious to see what Ira Glass likes to read...
ReplyDeleteIn 1999 I was a freshman in high school. When our class president posted that she had started a page on Facebook for planning our ten-year reunion this year, it freaked me out a little.
So this Time Machine phenom doesn't just happen to me? Phew. One of my kids started to sing that ancient ditty "Back to Life" by Soul ll soul and I started telling him all about how that used to be MY jam just a few years ago. Then I did the math and realized the last time I sang along to it was on my way home from a job interview in...wait for it...
ReplyDelete1991.
Nice post, and I do love me some Ira Glass. I'd be honored to add this book to the tower of tomes I have on my nightstand.
Jenny