WWW.WEDNESDAY

WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here.  

1. What are you currently reading? Someone We Know by Shari Lapena. 16-year-old Raleigh is an average suburban high schooler with a penchant for computers and a bad habit: he breaks into neighbor's homes, and their laptops. Not to steal! Just for kicks and to make a little mischief. When one of the neighbors goes missing, the fun goes out of Raleigh's "game."

When I was a kid, there was a horror movie called, I Saw What You Did. It was about teen girls who amuse themselves by making prank calls to random strangers, saying, "I know who you are and I saw what you did." It stops being fun when they call a psycho who happened to have murdered his wife.

This seems like a new millennium update of that old story. Which is fine. It scared me then, and it's scaring me now.

2. What did you recently finish reading?  Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann. You should know, if you're considering picking up this book, that it's stupid. I think I may have lost brain cells by reading it.

 

Which is not to say that I didn't find it compulsively readable. 

I can't tell you why. Neely is a monster. Anne is dull. Jennifer is a transactional slut. The writing is sophomoric. And yet I was into it. 

Oh well, as Ms. Susann herself might say, reading it was like having hot sex with a man you don't really like. I'm not sorry I did it but I'm not sorry it's over and I won't do it again.

BTW, I couldn't help envisioning the movie's actresses as I read and came away with a new appreciation for Sharon Tate. It's not like the screenplay's Jennifer was exponentially more likeable, and yet on film she seems sympathetic. I think it's because Sharon Tate imbued her with humanity. It makes me wonder what Ms. Tate could have done with an actual, well-written character.

 

3. What will read next? I don't know.