Accidental Insightfulness

A while back I found myself lacking in reading material. And as reading is an activity that fills many of my sleepless nights, I went to a bookstore’s online site and searched for random (cheap) interesting looking titles. I ended up with about 6 or 7 books. I picked up the longest book first, made it through about 15 pages and decided to start with the others. I flew threw the others – nothing impacted me or was anything other than a momentary escape from reality.

I eventually went back to the first book and continued reading. By the end I had deemed it to be in at least the top 5 best books I’ve ever read. Not what I expected when I bought it, but I will definitely buy anything this author writes again.

Elliot Perlman – The Seven Types of Ambiguity

It is well written, well organized, hard to read at times – but only because you have to actually think about what you’re reading. And despite popular opinion, there really isn’t anything wrong with having to put a little thought into a book. The author may write in language that we don’t often use in everyday conversations – and some reviews I’ve read chastise him for this. I personally found it more interesting and intriguing because of the expanded vocabulary.

Perlman did his research – he references literary history with careful accuracy. There are quotes from this book that stick with me – and it’s not often that I stop and read the same paragraph more than once. I imagine it’s a love it or hate it book – there’s not likely to be many people in the gray. Give it a shot if you’re up for something out of the ordinary – let me know what you think.

~~Random Quotes~~

“The decision to fail is often made in the pursuit of attention”

“Anybody who doesn’t want or need something is dead. And anyone who needs something can be hurt”

“Once can correlate the amount of time a child spends on the school premises after the final bell has rung for the day with the degree of domestic dislocation to which the child is subjected”

“…an expatriate in the state of denial.”

“To not be alone somebody has to connect with you and you have to connect with them… somebody has to make the emotional and intellectual effort to come with you as you ride the relentless waves of fear and hope, of pain and pleasure, of doubt and certainty, that inhabit the sea of human experience”

“The pleasure lives there when the sense has died”

“People tend to assume that there is a dichotomy between emotion and intellect. In Fact, it’s really more of a continuum with emotion and one end and intellect at the other”

Tags: australia, elliot perlman, empson, fiction, insightful, lost love, seven types of ambiguity, william empson