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A Chicago area girl born and bred, I've lived in Mississippi, Montana, Michigan, and...ten years in the wilds of northeastern Indiana, where I fought the noble fight as a book editor. Now, I'm back in Illinois once more...for good. (At least I intend to make it that way!)

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Can't Resist This One...

Never read books you aren’t sure about morally, even supposing that these bad books are very well written from a literary point of view. Let me ask you this: Would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup?
— St. John Bosco

3 comments:

Donna Alice said...

Very true---nice quote.

Deb said...

I wonder, though--how do you know it's unsound unless you've read it? I do rely on friends' recommendations for or against, but...

T2

Janny said...

Oh, I think you can tell within a couple of pages whether a book's going to take you down a path it ought not to take you down. Some of us go down them anyway...and I could especially identify with this quote after reading CROSS, by James Patterson.

Keenly as I love the character of Alex Cross that Patterson created, and as much as I'd wanted to read that book, the actual storyline and treatment was pretty much undiluted, unrelieved darkness. I got done with it and wanted to take a shower from the inside out, and as I contemplated it, I thought, "Hmmm, maybe that's not such a good book to spend time in, morally speaking."

But I wouldn't have had to read the whole thing in order to realize that, either. I guess my conscience is just becoming more audible. :-)


Janny