Fairy Tale Spotlight: If on a winter's night a traveler [Book Review]

It is either a Monday or a Wednesday... or perhaps some other day. The day itself has gotten away from you, but it means little. Nothing else matters but for one thing, and that is to sit down in front of your computer and access the renowned blog of author T.K. Wade. A new blog has been posted, and you have decided to dedicate yourself to its reading. After pouring yourself a cup of hot chocolate, which is your preferred choice of beverage while reading the author's blogs, you make a few clicks and the new edition of Fairy Tale Spotlight is splashed across your screen.

As is very common in the famous blogs of T.K. Wade, he has decided to post a review of a book. Although this is usually a very exciting thing for you, you immediately notice an unfortunate problem. You are well aware that T.K. Wade never makes typographical errors, but it seems he has, for some reason or another, forgotten to capitalize the book's title in the heading of the blog. Only the first word was capitalized, but nothing else. You consider leaving a comment about the mistake in the section below the article, but perhaps that might be rude. It seems polite to simply continue reading and see what this book is all about.

As usual, T.K. Wade opens in his usual way. He prints out the name of the book with its author and publication date. In this case, the author seems to be an Italian man by the name of Italo Calvino and its publication year is stated to be 1979. But sadly, he has also failed to type out the title with proper capitalization, leading you to believe he was merely copy and pasting it with the error occurring in every single instance. He does this every single time, in fact, as you skim through the blog. "If on a winter's night a traveler" over and over again, just like that. You consider not reading the thing at all. Perhaps he just needs a week or so to regain his former literary acumen.

But upon reading a small portion of the review, you cannot help but continue on. One of the strange things about this particular blog is that it is written in an odd second person, constantly telling the reader of the blog what he is doing and why. It is a pretty strange experience for you. It is nothing like the blogs he has written formerly, although it seems to be T.K. Wade's manner of explaining this book, you suppose.

Much of the description of the book is rather strange to you. You aren't sure what you are reading, so you read every paragraph several times over just to make sure you aren't losing your mind. It seems as if T.K. Wade is suggesting that this book is a collection of unfinished novels, but then it might not be. Or else it is about a man who is reading unfinished novels. Or else it's you who is doing it. Or T.K. Wade? It isn't exactly clear. Halfway through the blog, you decide you need a break.

The day seems to be sunny enough for a walk. There are few instances of annoying flying insects. You leave your computer on and go out. As you pass down the sidewalk next to the street, you cannot get the first portion of the blog out of your mind. The more you think about it, the more infuriating it gets. It's really nothing like the blogs he has written in the past. It almost feels like a betrayal of a kind.

By the time you get to the turning point of your walk, you have already decided not to read the rest of it. You seriously wonder what T.K. Wade could say that will make the review any better. And the very idea he could simply dictate who you are and what you do with your life seems a pretentious thing to attempt. Perhaps you will not read any more of his blogs after today. If he is so intent on changing his style, then punish him! Show him you won't put up with such foolishness.

Halfway home, however, your better sense takes control. It might not be as bad as it seems. T.K. Wade is probably just being silly. He's having fun. Why aren't you having fun too? You decide that you want to have fun. And maybe finishing his new blog is the way to get there, although you are somewhat doubtful. Really, why didn't he capitalize properly? You're suppose to capitalize a title. Almost every word of it. Really. It's such a stupid mistake to make.

Returning to your home, the computer screen is still on and showing the blog. You check to see if the remainder of the hot chocolate is still warm, but it isn't. You decide to refresh it first before you sit back down at the computer.

The blog continues to assume things about you, as if it is deciding your own life and what you are going to do. For the time being, you let it... if only to see if the book gets a recommendation. T.K. Wade always does that. He always puts a recommendation or a lack of one at the end of his blog. Sometimes it's worth reading to the end to, just at least, see if he recommends the book. In many ways, this is the actual point of his blogs. The rest is just fluff that leads up to the climax where he does or does not recommend it. So you read on, not caring too much about the content of the book but really wanting to know if it is a book worth reading.

You think about that a lot. You wonder if a book is worth reading. Sometimes it isn't so much about what a book is about but if its worth reading. Although the concept seems subjective in nature, there is always the idle thought wafting about that there are good things out there that are worthwhile. How will you know unless you either find them or someone points them out? It is the nature of the obscure. We always wonder what exists but have no idea how to find the things we really want, and often times we cannot even be terribly sure of what we want until we stumble across it.

T.K. Wade never really recommended anything you wanted, but his blog had given you ideas and concepts of what you might want... although you could never be sure until you tried it. You might dislike anything he recommends outright. This fear is probably why you never really bothered reading anything he recommended, even though you sometimes wanted to. It's the fear that time will be wasted. Wasted time... The inevitable conclusion that comes with death. A failure that you don't want to think about, yet this blog seems to bring it up belligerently. That's it! You skip to the end!

Aggravatingly, T.K. Wade waffles on the idea of if he should recommend it or not. He can't decide! If he can't decide, how can you decide anything? Annoyed and tired, you down your hot chocolate and move on with your life. Maybe you will comment about it later, but for now, there's just too much ire. You need to relax. Maybe read a book. What book? Any book? Let's pick a book.

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This blog was written on August 24, 2022.

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