Is this book really mind bending?

Post number 496

I bought Reality Hunger by David Shields (Penguin) at a News Agency at Melbourne Airport in March this year. The topic caught my attention and I was sold on the reviews! He may be well-known but I had never heard of him before. Here are some of the reviews that got me in…

‘Mind-bending’ THE NEW YORK TIMES

‘Bold, entertaining, contentious. Essential reading for readers and writers’ GUARDIAN

‘Give(s) bourgeois traditionalists a right good kicking’ OBSERVER

‘An invigorating shakedown of the literary status quo: recommended for readers, essential for writers’ TIME OUT, New York

Well, I have to admit I just couldn’t get into it. It is not written like a ‘normal’ book – you know, chapters, paragraphs etc. Maybe I am behind the times. There was one good outcome for me though. After I admitted defeat and was putting it with my other books I happened to notice on the second last page some information about another of his books titled “The Thing About Life is that One Day you will be Dead”.

I found it on Amazon and downloaded it to my Kindle. To my surprise I really enjoyed it! He confronts our mortality in a unique way that is not threatening or negative. I would recommend it 🙂

cheers

Lorraine

Reality Hunger: A Manifesto (erausrearchive.wordpress.com)
Note: David Shields is fantastic. (theliterarymantra.wordpress.com)
Ceative Response to “L” by David Shields (artofstealing.wordpress.com)

6 thoughts on “Is this book really mind bending?”

Just read your “About” page. The Road Less Traveled is just great. I’m a fairly excitable guy, unlike other books, that book’s energy has never dissipated. “Alpha and Omega” was my favorite part for sure. Anyhow, this post was nice to read as well. Ever read Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment?” It contains the best commentary on flattery ever.

aawwa

June 9, 2013 at 11:26 am

Hi, thanks for your comments. I haven’t read Crime and Punishment – I will check it out 🙂

Reply

Yea,I would like to read the book.I didn’t know about him either.Thanks for sharing.

aawwa

June 9, 2013 at 9:44 pm

My pleasure. I had a read of some of your blogs today and I found them to be very interesting 🙂

Reply

It great how you recommend one book by saying you couldn’t take the original one you bought. It gives your opinion greater validity. I loved the way your mind worked