Friday, April 27, 2012

Books and Social Awkwardness

I just finished one book and I'm half-way through another and I can't get either of them out of my mind.

Have you ever had a book really stick with you? Has it played in your head in that certain way where all you want to do is talk about it? Except you when you begin to talk about it, you just get frustrated because the other person can't understand - they haven't read it.

I'm dealing with back to back books like that.

And here's the kicker - both topics are big NO-NOs for casual social conversation:
Nazis and Presidential Assassinations

All I want to do is talk about them and all I meet are road blocks. There's no natural segues into these conversations...

Neil, watching the NFL draft: "Poor Richardson, doesn't know what he's getting into going to the Browns"
Me, hoping for an opening: "You know who else didn't know what he was getting into - Ambassador Dodd - when he was sent to Berlin in 1932, right before Hitler rose to power."
....
Me, again, clearly not reading the room: "Sorry, you probably don't want to talk about that right now. But real quick. Did you know that the saloon where John Wilkes Booth plotted to kill Lincoln is now a Chinese restaurant called Wok & Roll? You can drink bubble tea in a booth where they conspired."

So PLEASE help me. I can't join normal parts of society right now. Instead, our only option is for someone to read one/both of these and then talk to me in a little strange societal pocket on the side.

by Erik Larson



by Sarah Vowell



hurry. go. read. help!

2 comments:

  1. I'm reading that next. We should start some sort of beer and books club or something. But only with people who want to read books we like. :)

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    1. Tom I almost got overly excited and suggested we meet to discuss this first one at the Hofbrauhaus - but then, is it too themey and uncooth to drink heifeweizen and table dance in response to reading about one of the most horrific things to emerge from Germany? I mean, they do have a beer cheese dip that's out of this world.

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