Some time ago I made boldly disparaging remarks about a certain "set" of books that were matchy-matchy in nature. These books bother me in the worst way -- in a way that no other published author (the thinly veiled frustration here being my consistent lack of publication) does. It seems that under the guise of chick-lit (pseudo?), this author has been able to work her way into a multiple-book contract. Her publisher, at this very moment, is saying: Keep the cheesy stuff coming, and we'll keep shoveling it out there with a matching cover to boot. We'll make it all matchy-matchy so our target audience doesn't have to think too much and will see all the matching covers and intuitively know they all go together and wouldn't she want all of them? For who said silly women can't be completists as well?
I did also mention in that previous post that I could at least see my whining and complaining was getting me nowhere. While I hunted about the bookstore for more matchy evidence to support my jealous claims, it became clear that this was time I could spend writing. Clearly, author of said matchy books was busy writing...something. Is it worth reading? I doubt it. But again, I do not know.
Now, it seems, I may have a chance to find out. The author who gave us the lovely matchiness of:
this
and 
this...
has now graced
us with this: 
To commemorate and no doubt celebrate the sickening success of yet another book that seems to tell women exactly what they should be wanting in life (more to come on my sickening experience thus far with the wedding industry), the author of such fine titles will be giving a reading this Friday.
I do have some burning questions and attendance at such a reading might provide answers to these questions of mine. To wit - who reads these books? what kind of women are they? what kind of reading can be given by a writer who writes these kinds of books? will it be like other author readings where we all admire the writer so much we are a little awkward and shy and nervous when asking questions? is it possible for any reader to feel this way about an author who writes this type of drivel? what would betty friedan say? susan faludi?
I could stay home and write. I could attend other readings by proper authors. I could stop being so snarky and obsessive about something wholly outside myself (but is it?) and do something more constructive with my time. Or I could go take a peek and see if my hunch is correct and/or make a complete ass out of myself if/when the author is actually quite smart and witty and well-spoken and all women's lib.
Do I stay or do I go?
