MENAGE! "Nobodies" and "How to Tell When You're Tired"
07 December 2008
Let's get it started...
Welcome to the inaugural Book Menage at Citizen Reader. We've done this before, of course, but we did it at the dearly departed Nonfiction Readers Anonymous, now lost forever to the abyss of technical difficulties. Our two books this time around, though, are special: John Bowe's Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy, and Reg Theriault's How to Tell When You're Tired: A Brief Examination of Work.
These books are special not only because you chose them, but they're dear to me because 1. Nobodies was one of my favorite books of the last several years, and contains one of my most quoted lines ever; and 2. I bought the Theriault book from the used bookstore where I worked for a blissful year, and that bookstore was where I had my own perfect union of work that needed to be done and work that I needed to be doing. But all of that is neither here nor there. We are here for the discussion.
So how does this thing go down? Well, I ask a couple of general questions (any or all of which you are welcome to answer), and then we open it up to comments. Then, if all goes according to plan, everyone brings questions of their own, and then we answer those.* We do this for a week, and hopefully we have a good time. I think we will. Oh, and whoever comments is automatically entered in a drawing (with the lovely Mr. CR, as ever, choosing the winner out of a hat) to win the books for the next Menage.
My questions for you are:
1. What part/quote (if any) of each book particularly stuck with you, or made you think? Why did that part stand out?
2. What was your gut reaction to the writers of these books? Which author would you prefer to meet and chat things over with? Why?
3. Did Nobodies depress the hell out of anyone else or was it just me?
Okay! Go forth and menage. I'll start us off, because I don't expect others to answer questions I wouldn't answer myself. And thanks for joining the discussion!
*A while back when I posted a question about Nobodies, John Bowe popped in and answered it. So if you have questions for him or Reg, I'll try to track them down and get them answered. Just let me know.