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All books
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- This Is Your Brain on Music (112)
- The Science of a Human Obsession
- By Daniel J. Levitin
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Reading since Jan 26, 2009
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- Collected Fictions (83)
- By Jorge Luis Borges
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Reading since 2008
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- The Secret Adversary (88)
- By Agatha Christie
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Finished on Mar 15, 2009
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- The Hour I First Believed (43)
- A Novel
- By Wally Lamb
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Finished on Mar 14, 2009
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- Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2)
- With Iron Hands
- By Stuart Moore
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Finished on Feb 10, 2009
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- Being There (38)
- By Jerzy N. Kosinski
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Finished on Jan 20, 2009
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- A Journey to the Center of the Earth (283)
- By Jules Verne
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Finished on Jan 19, 2009
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- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of the Baskervilles (3)
- By Arthur Conan Doyle
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Finished on Jan 12, 2009
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- Curtain & The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1)
- By Agatha Christie
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Finished on Jan 3, 2009
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- They Came to Baghdad (52)
- By Agatha Christie
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Finished on Jan 1, 2009
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Sure, it's got the murder and last minute twists, but They Came to Baghdad isn't the normal Christie whodunnit; you'll find neither a secluded mansion/island/train nor an archetypal detective within its pages. However, it's these deviations from the formula that makes the book notable. Chri ... (continue)
- — Jan 7, 2009 | Add your feedback
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- Batman Black & White Volume 02 (31)
- By AA. VV.
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Finished in 2008
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- Red Star, Vol. 1 - The Battle of Kar Dathras Gate (3)
- By Christian Gossett, AA. VV.
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Finished in 2008
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- Batman: Arkham Asylum (65)
- 15th Anniversary Edition
- By Dave McKean, Grant Morrison
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Finished in 2008
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- Batman (4)
- The Complete History
- By Les Daniels
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Finished in 2008
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- Batman (135)
- The Long Halloween
- By Sale, Tim, Jeph Loeb
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Finished in 2008
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Tisha808
Being There
Though Being There has been on my shelf for a long time, I didn't get around to reading it until Inauguration Day 2009. It was therefore unfortunately impossible to follow the story of Chance—Jerzy Kosinski's dimwitted non-protagonist—without drawing parallels to failed vice presidential can ... (continue)
Though Being There has been on my shelf for a long time, I didn't get around to reading it until Inauguration Day 2009. It was therefore unfortunately impossible to follow the story of Chance—Jerzy Kosinski's dimwitted non-protagonist—without drawing parallels to failed vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Though the novel predates the millennial craze, Chance is the prototypical reality TV star; he rises to political fame and public adoration (despite his illiteracy) simply by "being there."
The cover's tagline proclaims him a "new American hero," the praise from Newsweek: "a fabulous creature of our age," and the back cover wonders whether "he know[s] something we don't." Perhaps these descriptions are more in keeping with the film version of the character (who famously walks on water in the movie's final scene), because there's nothing particularly heroic—or even interesting—about this incarnation. Instead, he is exactly as the Russians describe him: a "blank page" upon which the supporting characters project their own interpretations. It's this construct, and its implications for a society that considers itself meritocritous, that make Being There worth reading.
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