A Brief Report


I've finally abandoned Z&AoMM. I hate to do it in some ways but it just got too preachy and self-helpy and I'm not in the mood for that. Or maybe I am and it's just that it's hard to read about it. I'm also not sure that Pirsig's set himself up throughout the text to be as credible as a preachy person needs to be in order to get away with being preachy. I have to recommend going back to Plaid Column in early February (you can see how slow I am at reading this book) and looking at the concern about Pirsig expressed there. Are those who are self-helped, overly self-absorbed? So the cover is off and the book is lying over on the other side of the room out of my reach. I haven't decided what to do with it next. I've started reading the Scottish book, the one I got for Christmas. It's a history book and it has its good points and bad points. It's pretty funny in the sense that every few pages, the author reasserts the apparent main point of the book which is that Scots invented the modern world. I like that the author is well aware of the humour in his assertion and plays it up even as he is completely serious. The book seems to follow the pattern of a lot of contemporary, popular history books in its use of storytelling as a way of making history less boring so I guess the book is less boring than it could be but...hey! I'll reserve judgement. I'm only on page 15. Plus, being Scottish and all, I already know some of the stuff he's telling me (can't you tell that I've been surrepticiously dipping into Catcher in the Rye?). But, again, I've just started the book. I am looking for a good novel but don't know what direction to go in.