* I have entered the books I am currently reading onto my i-Google page under the My Google Book Search gadget. Those books are: The Book of Secrets, Sense and Sensibility, On the Road, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Little Red Writing Book, Chaos: Making a New Science, Dear Me: Letters to my 16 year old self, The Kingdom of Infinite Space, She, Oscar Wilde's Plays Prose Writings and Poems, The Virgin in the Garden, The Gulag Archipelago II, The Norton Anthology of Poetry, Don Quixote, Crime and Punishment, The Chronicles of Narnia, Karma: The Ancient Science of Cause and Effect, From Cape Wrath to Finisterre, Antigone, War and Peace, The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe, King of the City, and, Travels with Charley. The Following are recommendations My Google Book Search makes for other books for me to read, based on what I have already listed.
1. Four more versions of She, including an omnibus of H Rider Haggard novel which is what I am reading. How does recommending a book you are already reading work exactly? It's not like it is even in translation and the third sentence on page twenty-eight may be reworded differently. This is just silly.
2. Sex Matters: From Sex to Superconsciousness by Osho. Okay, on two counts: if you like an author maybe you'd like to read something else he wrote, and, everyone will take a recommendation to read a book about sex—even if you are sitting there denying it, you're still curious.
3. The Complete Idiots Guide to American Literature. What is Google saying? Are they calling me a complete idiot?
4. Seventeen different versions of Don Quixote. Seven of which are in Spanish, and one dual language. For the ridiculousness of this suggestion, and for the benefit of any multiple but same suggestions that follow, see number one.
5. Brewer’s Famous Quotations. This may be a half sensible suggestion—although I am sure to find that ninety percent of the quotes are from either Oscar Wilde, or, Don Quixote.
6. Viewpoints, bulletin of the School of Education, Indiana University. Okay, thanks. I will see if I can get around to reading it sometime. Did you have any particular issue in mind?
7. The All Music Guide to Country. Where on Earth did they get that suggestion from? Have they also accessed my i-Pod playlists? Oops, have I given away something I didn’t really want anyone to know?
8. Malcontents: The best bitter, cynical and satirical writing in the world. That sounds Oscar-chocker but also like a bit of a fun read. I think I could get my writing into that work eventually—it does tend to be bitter, cynical and satirical!
9. Women's Almanac: Twelve How-To Handbooks in One. That sounds quite useful, even if also derogatory.
10. Sparknotes Cheaters Guide to The Scarlet Letter. Okay? I am not reading The Scarlet Letter, nor am I studying it,writing an essay on it, researching a thesis or taking an exam on it, but, hey, no reason not to be prepared with some salient thoughts about the text.
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