Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Lunch mit Bonnie.

I had the best mid-week lunch I've had in years on Tuesday.
And it wasn't because of the cabbage, brown rice or that "naturopathically measured" splash of flaxseed oil either.
Probably it was despite all that, if I'm truthful.

Also it was despite that table of swearing old bigots sitting not quite far enough away.

Isn't it incredible how much shorter than usual half an hour is when you're in good company?
I know I've endured bad company before and I've honestly considered which limb I would sacrifice as a trade if it would speed up the passage of time.

Theirs.

No brainer.
And don't judge that comment too harshly... it would give them something semi-interesting to discuss for a while.
Win win.

So, lunch with Bonnie was a delightful break from the norm.
Not that Merrylands has a norm as such.

Incidentally, I've never met anyone as naturally talented as Bonnie at matching a book to a person. Or is it the other way around?
I'll have to remember to ask her that.
Perhaps she's unaware of her talent in this area, thus making it all the more zen.

When I think back, I believe her first words to me may have been something like, "You would like this..." as she handed me a book I'd just completed a day earlier.
I'd loved it. Geraldine Brooks, I think. Something about the plague.
I like the plague.

So, as we headed out into the sunshine, she told me about a book she'd just started called Still Waters, and that she wasn't particularly enjoying it. It's about a woman who dislikes the experience of motherhood and her loss of identity so much that she kills her children.
Sounds out of bounds.
Why not? She's always been right before.
Yes, I'll put it on my pile.
Right under Reading Lolita in Tehran and Factotum.

Well, I opened it on Tuesday night, planning to judge the entire contents not by the cover, but by the first sentence. I'll even give some books until the end of the first paragraph if I'm feeling reasonable.
Well, I finished it instead of watching State of Origin football tonight. Which is pretty good considering that today is only Wednesday.
So, it's not under the Lolita or Bukowski pile at all. It's back in my handbag so that I can return it tomorrow.

I don't know what I liked about it so much.
Just that the concept of honesty fascinates me, especially the idea of a person being honest with themselves. To be able to identify with someone in such a warped state of mind is an unpleasantly strange feeling.
It wasn't a nice book. It wasn't even a great book. But it was certainly compelling.

Nice one Bon. Hope you like Evelina. ;O)

BTW, my two favourite first sentences are from:-

1) Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2) Confessions of a Dangerous Mind - Chuck Barris

But I'll blog about them later.

1 comment:

Banafsheh Serov said...

The highest compliment you can hand a bookseller is to not only to think that she is the best person to match a book to a person but to also write it in their blog hence making them immortal.