Tue, December 7, 2004

Dominey (or possibly Storey) has been carrying on about this book Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell like it's this crazywonderful thing that everyone has to read. Repeatedly talking about it. That kind of buzz grabs my attention.

So, I had an Amazon.com Gift Certificate that a friend got me for doing some recent web work. (If you've got a screenplay that needs writing and you don't want to use me, you should look her up.) Out of everything on my Wish List that my Mom hasn't already been instructed to buy me for our upcoming non-denominational winter celebration of making gay people feel guilty about their lifestyles, Strangey & Mr. Nor jumped out at me. I knew I was in for a fun ride, when Amazon said this:

The book Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell has been printed with two different dust jackets–one black, one white. Amazon.com is unable to accept requests for a specific cover. The various covers will be assigned to orders at random.

(By the way, if you're curious, my boycott of Amazon.com continues – it just isn't very successful, or consistent.)

So I ordered the thing up, thinking it'd be great reading material for the plane, and it arrived today. I don't think I can take it on the plane. It would cause the entire aircraft to list to one side. This thing is colossal!

I'm not sure why, but I'd imagined it being a nice, tidy little paperback. I think this is why. They have that stupid little Kilroy guy on most books at Amazon, peeking over the top to advertise their pointless "search inside" feature. (Useful for textbooks and non-fiction, I guess, but novels? Who searches inside novels before they buy? "Well, this story sounds interesting, but first let me make sure they don't mention unicorns, wallpaper, or Hitler.")

See, I just recently bought (and haven't read) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and it's a nice, tidy little paperback. You'll notice that Kilroy looks the same on both.

Subconsciously, I think I took it to mean that the books were roughly similar in depth. Since I've held the Night-Time book in my hand, I can imagine Kilroy sort of dangling down the back of it thusly:

But it turns out that Kilroy is laying prone across the entire top of the Jonathan Strange book, because it's much much bigger. Its sheer girth is just staggering.

Oh, well. Strange thing about perception. I'm still interested to read this giant mother of a book, even though it's supposedly sort of Harry Potter-ish or Lord of the Rings-ish or something. Maybe that's just what I need to wipe that smug look off my face.

(By the way, I got the black cover. Thank God.)