VIRB

I've been catching up on some book reading - mostly rereading some of my favourite contemporary books like The Name of the Rose. Read Brideshead Revisited too, which I love, though I can't identify with the religious aspect of the book. Just finished Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana which I enjoyed but would not recommend to anyone who just wants a light read. It's not a plot-driven book, and contains philosophy, history, popular culture, as seen from an Italian perspective. I found it fascinating, but on Amazon some people were getting very bitchy about Eco's erudition. I have to say I don't have a lot of time for these sorts of readers. What on earth are they doing reading Eco in the first place? He's not Dan Brown. It's a measure of intelligence - in my opinon - to realise the limits of your intelligence and knowledge, to grasp how stupid you really are. If I read a book that goes over my head, I don't automatically blame the author since I know it could be my fault - I wasn't concentrating; I chose the wrong book (which is my responsibility, not the author's); the author has a different style of thinking and communicating which is completely incompatible with my own; the book is too clever for me, etc. I don't have a problem with this. I'm well educated, I read all kinds of books including renaissance texts, and higher brow modern fiction, but there's still stuff that at least on a first reading goes over my head. There are some readers in the world who are absolutely furious when they don't understand a book - and it's always the author's fault, never theirs. They then go on to the likes of Amazon and display the extent of their prejudice and stupidity by writing some mouth foaming review with such gems as - there are too many foreign names (in a foreign language translation!). In the case of this Eco novel, some people thought he was just showing off. Not everyone wants to read books where everything is presented easily digested on a plate. The best books I've read have different levels, and more emerges on a second and third reading. Obviously many people just want to read a book once and move on, so they may be looking for something that delivers everything in a single read.