"Rule of Four"

So I thought this was the companion piece to "The DaVinci Code," because it was polling well for people who had read that other book against their better judgment and also chose Powells Bookstore, the best bookstore in the world, all in one city block of Portland, Ore., as their preferred book dealer.

Well, it's not easy reading about Princeton students. I'm not sure that even now, when one must be an overmotivated, overeducated, overambitious to be an Ivy Leaguer, that any of them have the kind of character to get entranced by the mysteries of an early attempt at the novel with numerous digressions on architecture and woodblock prints from Greek and, uh, non-Greek mythology. I mean, antiquarianism is a cute hobby, but it's the sort of resume padding and essay material a contemporary ILer would use strictly as a means to getting into the school, not their motivating passion. I mean, please, the student loans you're going to carry! Even your most coddled Gen Y-er is going to be more motivated than this!

Anyway, that's the first hurdle. The second is caring about IL students at all. The third is this alleged source of all wisdom, a boring book that we don't get to read. What's the puzzle? The characters are trying to figure it out too.

I'm still plugging away; I think the book has potential, even if it doesn't make me feel so barmy smart like "DVC." Actually, it does, because I can see the formula this book needs clearer than the authors. But I thought I'd write down my thoughts because I might not make it through this book.

I feel pretty bad that I can't finish books lately. But there's only so much I'm willing to subject myself to when I can barely get a moment to myself. When there are eight million things I want to do and teach myself and enjoy, I don't think I can read the near-pornographic detail of financial transactions in a book like "Den of Thieves" or a mediocre adventure that wants to, but can't, transcend its archetype.