S.
I forget how I heard about this book, but as soon as I did, I became obsessed with reading it. It's an experimental sort of book, a collaboration between JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst. It's definitely a different sort of reading experience that any other I've had before.
This is a book of many layers, and it requires the reader to keep track of a bunch of stuff at once. The foundation is the "fictional" book, Book of Theseus. Fictional is in quotes because that book does, obviously, exist. You read it as part of reading this book. But all the other information about it, the author and his life and the 19 books he wrote before it, do not actually exist except in the world of this book.
Book of Theseus is presented as the final book this author, Straka, ever wrote. And he actually died before he finished it. So his longtime friend and translator finished it for him and had it published posthumously. Footnotes throughout the book comment on their relationship, as well as Straka's previous work.
A grad student is writing his thesis on Straka, who it turns out was a very mysterious and divisive figure. He stole this book from a library when he was in high school and has been writing notes in the margins each time he reads it. Then one day he accidentally leaves it behind in the library and an undergrad finds it. She responds to some of his marginalia, the two bond over a love of Straka, and a relationship is born. The book also includes a bunch of insets, notes the two write to each other, newspaper articles that elaborate on this or that point, and others as well.
So, that's the structure of the book. The marginalia are color-coded to help the reader work out the chronology. The earliest notes are in pencil, the first conversation is in blue and black, then yellow and green, and on and on, until eventually they're written in the same color, one pen being passed back and forth.
I found that the best way to read this book was a chapter at a time: Read the chapter, then go back and read the marginalia. Some people read the whole book before going back and doing that, and some even read all the footnotes in chronological order, sifting through the book again and again. And there are also some people who read the notes in the margins along with the rest of the book, but I found it too difficult to concentrate on the underlying story when I did that. If nothing else, this book is proof that there's no right way to read a book. You just have to experiment and find the way that works for you.
Unfortunately, my preferred style meant that I was inhaling whole chapters at a time, which meant I had to carve out an hour or two at a time to dive into this book. Which is difficult over the holidays when you have lots of family and also a toddler. It took me two months to read, and I ultimately feel like I didn't give it the attention it demanded. I wish I had picked a different time to read it, sometime when I could devote hours to it at a time and in one long chunk. Alas.
I did enjoy this book, despite that. There was a lot to keep straight. It was ambitious, and I think it mostly succeeded. I stuck with it to the bitter end anyway. But I feel like I could have gotten more out of it than I did. Ah well, perhaps it's another book to revisit after I've retired.
This is a book of many layers, and it requires the reader to keep track of a bunch of stuff at once. The foundation is the "fictional" book, Book of Theseus. Fictional is in quotes because that book does, obviously, exist. You read it as part of reading this book. But all the other information about it, the author and his life and the 19 books he wrote before it, do not actually exist except in the world of this book.
Book of Theseus is presented as the final book this author, Straka, ever wrote. And he actually died before he finished it. So his longtime friend and translator finished it for him and had it published posthumously. Footnotes throughout the book comment on their relationship, as well as Straka's previous work.
A grad student is writing his thesis on Straka, who it turns out was a very mysterious and divisive figure. He stole this book from a library when he was in high school and has been writing notes in the margins each time he reads it. Then one day he accidentally leaves it behind in the library and an undergrad finds it. She responds to some of his marginalia, the two bond over a love of Straka, and a relationship is born. The book also includes a bunch of insets, notes the two write to each other, newspaper articles that elaborate on this or that point, and others as well.
So, that's the structure of the book. The marginalia are color-coded to help the reader work out the chronology. The earliest notes are in pencil, the first conversation is in blue and black, then yellow and green, and on and on, until eventually they're written in the same color, one pen being passed back and forth.
I found that the best way to read this book was a chapter at a time: Read the chapter, then go back and read the marginalia. Some people read the whole book before going back and doing that, and some even read all the footnotes in chronological order, sifting through the book again and again. And there are also some people who read the notes in the margins along with the rest of the book, but I found it too difficult to concentrate on the underlying story when I did that. If nothing else, this book is proof that there's no right way to read a book. You just have to experiment and find the way that works for you.
Unfortunately, my preferred style meant that I was inhaling whole chapters at a time, which meant I had to carve out an hour or two at a time to dive into this book. Which is difficult over the holidays when you have lots of family and also a toddler. It took me two months to read, and I ultimately feel like I didn't give it the attention it demanded. I wish I had picked a different time to read it, sometime when I could devote hours to it at a time and in one long chunk. Alas.
I did enjoy this book, despite that. There was a lot to keep straight. It was ambitious, and I think it mostly succeeded. I stuck with it to the bitter end anyway. But I feel like I could have gotten more out of it than I did. Ah well, perhaps it's another book to revisit after I've retired.
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