Stung by writing

I don’t know if the Internet can take up the slack created by the collapse of newspaper book-review sections, but if it does, discussion groups like the one going on over at Bookblog will be a big part of the reason.

The book currently under discussion, The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks, is one I’ve always been fond of because it took me so completely by surprise. I bought the first paperback edition at a Foodtown supermarket book rack, of all places, because it stood out like a flare amid the romance titles and bodice-rippers and the length suggested a quick read for a dull afternoon. It was a quick read, all right. It takes a lot for a book to make me put it down and think, Omigod, did I just read that? but The Wasp Factory managed that feat more than once.

Bookblog’s backlog (backblog?) of discussions includes a pretty impressive range of titles, including A Canticle for Leibowitz and A Confederacy of Dunces.