benedict

... "S" by J A Abrams and Doug Dorst!



Not quite a palimpsest but seems like an interesting concept.

Anyone ordered it yet?

lukewarmwater

I got it and am excited about reading it but after opening the book I have no idea how to start it.

There are basically three different threads you have to follow at the same time.
They are: The story of the ship of Theseus by VM Straka. The translator notes, and then the notes between the students.
Also the papers and cards included, I'm not sure if they're important and which storyteller their from, so it may be from four storytellers.

Also I looked online at reviews and interviews, hoping to find the best way to approach the story and I had one of the twists kind of ruined for me, so be careful. It was a wired article, so be careful people.

Reminds me a lot of House of Leaves.

mhg83

Just picked it up at Target it's the strangest piece of experimental literature. Definitely reminds me of House Of Leaves. I'm guessing this is something that will not be available at Libraries due to all the extra stuff that can fall out and get lost easily? I didn't read it yet but is that decoder thing at the end of the book comes into use at some point?

Why So Blu?

I will probably be getting this at some point this week - LOVE the concept and the design is groovy! Here's the synopsis and some pics:

One book. Two readers. A world of mystery, menace, and desire.

A young woman picks up a book left behind by a stranger. Inside it are his margin notes, which reveal a reader entranced by the story and by its mysterious author. She responds with notes of her own, leaving the book for the stranger, and so begins an unlikely conversation that plunges them both into the unknown.

The book: Ship of Theseus, the final novel by a prolific but enigmatic writer named V.M. Straka, in which a man with no past is shanghaied onto a strange ship with a monstrous crew and launched onto a disorienting and perilous journey.

The writer: Straka, the incendiary and secretive subject of one of the world’s greatest mysteries, a revolutionary about whom the world knows nothing apart from the words he wrote and the rumors that swirl around him.

The readers: Jennifer and Eric, a college senior and a disgraced grad student, both facing crucial decisions about who they are, who they might become, and how much they’re willing to trust another person with their passions, hurts, and fears.

S., conceived by filmmaker J. J. Abrams and written by award-winning novelist Doug Dorst, is the chronicle of two readers finding each other in the margins of a book and enmeshing themselves in a deadly struggle between forces they don’t understand, and it is also Abrams and Dorst’s love letter to the written word.

Why So Blu?

Ah, I did not know there was thread for it. Thanks for moving it over.

Why So Blu?

Our library has 6 copies and there are 17 people waiting for it.

Why So Blu?

Just bought my copy using the 30% coupon code (BOOKDEAL) flying around. They lowered the price from $21 to $17, so my final total with tax was $13.35. Should be here on Sunday.

Wilbi

Hey,

I started reading it yesterday. Not sure what the best way is. What I'm doing is : read several pages of the novel, then go back to the notes. Buyt I wonder if the best way is not read the whole lovel first ??

Why So Blu?

My copy came in this morning. I'll be getting to it at some point this week.

mhg83

I saw a video and the guy said he would recommend reading the actual novel first and ignore the side notes and inserts. After finishing go back and read the side notes and inserts. Reason he gave was that the side notes contain spoilers for the book.

Why So Blu?

^ Good to know.