A few weeks ago, dinner chez Mr & Mrs Book Oven (beef stew and mashed potatoes, if I recall correctly) was smelling delicious and ready to be eaten. We wanted to watch a movie. We’ve got a subscription to Zip.ca, Canada’s Netflix, and I have a habit of listing every avant-guard movie from 1927 I can find, with the odd bit of candy. So we often have some difficult films to choose from. It’s not that difficult is bad, but let’s just say that every time the Criterion Collection screen comes on, my wife groans; and as wonderful as Kurosawa can be, some nights one just wants to watch Adam Sandler get kicked in inappropriate places.
Anyway, there we were with two choices: Bicycle Thief and Doctor Zhivago.
Not knowing which to choose, I asked Twitter, and from thence flowed a stream of opinions, a 50-50 split between the two (we went with Bicycle Thief; a bit on the dismal side, to be honest). At some point, my wife yelled: “Stop looking at Twitter and watch the movie!” … because I kept a running tally, shouting out “another for Zhivago” and “oh, so-and-so thinks we made the right choice.”
This story was related by my wife to some non-Tiwtterites, who were in awe of this strange and magical tool that elicited such information, like some digital Oracle of Delphi.
All that to ramble into another fascinating Delphesian experience I had the other day on Twitter. I needed a third book to fill out an online book order and get free shipping (the other two books I wanted – Bolano’s 2666 and Elise Blackwell’s Hunger – are not available as ebooks in Canada). And so, I asked Twitter.
And here, for the record, is a list of what the Oracles of Twitter answered (Note: where links were not provided, I will link to whatever comes up first in the Google):
@jbeswick: “The Atomic Obsession” – great read
@seancranbury: goddammit, hugh! Monstrous Affections
or this is really good Unknown Soldier Vol. 1: Haunted House
@janinelaporte: True Deceiver is great. Buy that one Hugh to get your free shipping
@seancranbury: how’s this? Monsieur Pain
@danwagstaff: I keep hearing great things about True Deceiver by Tove Jansson + Blue Fox by Sjon.
@karenjones4: six pixels of separation is great! :) im a media hacks listener! Heard good things about Blue Oceans Strategy, next on my list.
@FNHPodcast: How about “Vulcan 607”
@michaelerard: governing the commons, by Elinor Ostrom.
@jenni_fleur: “Recital” by John Siddique….UK poet.
@chebuctonian: Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows
@somisguided: eating the dinosaur by chuck klosterman
@dknippling: When in doubt about what book to get, get Barry Hughart’s Bridge of Birds.
@marianslibrary: Have you read 13 1/2 by Nevada Barr? It’s a thriller.
@chriskingstl: Bohumil Hrabal, “I served the King of England”; anything by Robert Walser; anything by Charles Nicholl (Reckoning, The Lodger…)
@D3WEY: that’s a shame it’s amazing like climbing literary mount everest — have you read Updike’s Rabbit series?
@ShireenJ: Mine. :P Seriously though, “Lifeliner” has had good reviews and is a fast read.
@openmargin: The Collaborative Habit by Twyla Tharp?
@jambina: new Michael Chabon?
@lorissa: If you enjoy fantasty reads, I’d suggest The Name of the WInd by Patrick Rothfuss.
@subumom: Have you read the Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa?
@echobase77: Mistborn by @BrandonSandrson!
goldenpen80: Try Razor’s Edge by Maugham, if u haven’t already. Short, sweet, and absolutely sublime.
I chose Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, well before all the other recommendations came in. I’ll let you know what I think of it sometime.
4 Comments
One day, The Twit will be embedded on the inside of your wrist, so when you have the yen to do so mid-movie, your wife will just think you peculiarly itchy.
I may have to add your pick to my list too. It sounds like one I’d like. I was wondering, did you make your choice based on the person recommending it or did you look up all the suggested reads and choose based on reviews/publisher information?
Well I chose that book early in the process – recos kept coming in afterwards. But, yes, I looked at all the recos …and I’m not sure if I would have chosen that book if I’d seen all of them, but my read of a couple of pages indicates that I chose well.
most social networks are used to recommend anything these days. With books, word of mouth is 1 of the more effective methods