The Great Book Escape

Now, possibly, more than ever I’m in escape mode. Yes, I’m talking about books. Hell’s bells, even reading Greek myth based stories is beyond me.
John Scalzi’s latest, When the Moon Hits Your Eye, comes out in days.

The moon has turned into cheese.
Now humanity has to deal with it.

For some it’s an opportunity. For others it’s a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now... something absolutely impossible.

Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and terminal patients at the end of their lives -- over the length of an entire lunar cycle, each get their moment in the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to wonder and to pray, to laugh and to grieve. All in a kaleidoscopic novel that goes all the places you’d expect, and then to so many places you wouldn’t.

It’s a wild moonage daydream. Ride this rocket. (source)

I have two very important questions.

1.   Specifically, what KIND of cheese? Cheddar? Bleu? Camembert? Ricotta? Gouda? Feta? Brie? I mean, this is important—I NEED to know!
2.   How can I get the ebook without shopping on Amazon? I’m, as you know, perma-boycotting Amazon. 

Why? They’re:

• Tax cheats.
• Pay their employees shit wages AND otherwise abuse them
• Putting small, independently owned shops out of business
• Racist fucks
• Union busters

   and

• Owner, Jeff Bezos, is a BIG supporter of the Fascist Fuck administration

Given that Kindles use a proprietary file format (a format that Amazon owns and controls), I can’t download and read the book from other, unboycotted sources. WHAT to do? I’m going to download an EPUB file on my laptop and read When the Moon Hits Your Eye in Apple Books. Yes, reading on my Kindle would be easier, not as unwieldy, but until I can get a tablet, it’ll do.

Why go through all this fuss? Why not just get an ink on paper book? My eyes don’t work as well as they used to. I need to be able to enlarge the font a LOT. Ebooks are a gift from Nabu (Mesopotamian god of wisdom and writing).

Scalzi’s new book comes at just the right time.

I recently finished Clare Pooley’s The Authenticity Project. I must not have read the synopsis before taking it out of the library—I didn’t know it was a romance novel. ICK!

The story? A former big time, uptight lawyer drops out and opens a cafe. An obnoxious, alcoholic day trader bottoms out and tries sobriety and self awareness. An elderly, eccentric, and lonely painter asks are we really honest with each ourselves and others? What would happen if we were?

These characters and others all intersect and eventually there’s a happily ever after. Within the first few chapters it was clear that the ex-lawyer and the soon to be sober drunk would end up together. The lawyer’s interim beau is lovely but obvs temporary. The artist is there to act as catalyst and color. Each player’s part is transparent. Pooley’s prose is engaging but her story building was like an 18th century glass-cased clock—you can see how each wheel, each spring, each weight fit together to create a working timepiece.

Absolutely predictable.

Why did I keep reading? It was either that or doomscroll.  What am I reading until the new Scalzi hits? My Murder by Katie Williams. Basically, the clone of a murdered woman sets out to solve her own murder. Cheery stuff, eh?

So far, it’s engaging but def not amusing—not enough to keep me from doomscrolling. I NEED Scalzi World NOW!