Why 100?

Last year I set out to read 100 books, but I ran out of time and only read 75. So this year, I will read one hundred books. And you're my witness :) The only thing stopping me this year is 9 seasons' worth of Seinfeld episodes- wish me luck!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

27. "The Airborne Toxic Event"

White Noise by Don DeLillo

This book brings up a lot of interesting questions.  Especially when you are reading it for a second time in order to create a project as a pair book for an ENT class.  don't ask- busy work and reading.  but i'm glad i got a chance to revisit White Noise.  No, it isn't the basis for the movie.... it is actually about a small, indescript town, and a family.  the narrator is the father of this family, an assembled modern day brady family.... kids and parents from a bunch of different marriages and such, all cohabitating in one odd household.  the father is the professor who chaired Hitler Studies department at the town college.  this is a key example of the strange but hilarious humor in this book.  then a tanker spills near the town and a "Toxic Airborne Event" occurs, leaving them to travel from shelter to shelter and ponder death for the duration of the middle of the book.  Then come the after-effects.  they discuss death a lot in this book but it is quite poignant- on the one hand, truly terrifying, but on the other, satisfying and thought-provoking in a good way.  the book also discusses the role that technology plays on our lives, seen most prominently in the random TV or radio quotes written in random sections.  just one line at a time about some sort of consumer product, cooking tip or Discovery show fact, inserted into the strange and amazing line up of words that make up White Noise.  fantastic.  really fantastic.  again.  if you want a philosophical book that is humorous and not scarily deep, but very thought provoking i insist that you read this.  if i have time later, i will post some of the more thoughtful quotes (that i have flagged in the book, for my pair book project.  so there!)  anyway, i hope you are having a lovely evening, or day, or whatever it is doing when you are reading this right here, right now.  even though 'now' has already passed by the time you were finished reading the word 'now.'  ha! think about that for a few minutes- i dare you :)

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