Well, there are so many juicy bits to talk about in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, I wasn't sure where to start. I think I'd like to focus first on empathy and the expression of love. For starters, did anyone have trouble relating to or feeling sympathy for Christopher? It seems clear that he, himself, does not feel empathy. He just does not get the concept. He talks about love, about how his father loves him, but he does not seem to understand what exactly that should mean. It's interesting that he thinks his father loves him because he does not lie to him (little does he know). Is that a proper definition of love?

Speaking of which, what did you think about Christopher's parents? Do you think they had empathy issues of their own? Do you think Christopher's father's behavior evidenced a lack of love or empathy for his son? I was so angry at Christopher's parents that I wanted to bite their heads off, but I have never had to raise a child with Asperger's Syndrome, so what do I know? Do you think they did the best they could, or were they failures as parents?

One last note: were you surprised by how the story unfolded? Do you think Christopher is a success as a narrator, even though the story didn't turn out to be the kind of mystery he set out to write?

Before we get into tomorrow's discussion of Fight Club (which probably won't begin until late in the evening since I have a class after work), I wanted to post about a few things I've been neglecting recently.

Next month's discussion will be on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Maya, a member-in-training, volunteered to host. Since I've been so incommunicado recently, I still haven't set her up with a login. I e-mailed her to make sure she still wants to join and moderate the discussion, but I haven't heard back yet. If she decides not to join, I'll jump in and post the conversation starter.

If you've e-mailed me recently about joining and I haven't responded, please feel free to send another message. I've been purging my inbox like crazy and may have lost some e-mails.

We have moderators set up now for the next several months (Yay!), but no titles. I'm itching for a book shopping trip, so please let me know as soon as decisions are made. I'm curious to find out what's going to be on the list.

A new kind of spam has begun showing up: advertising for other literary sites. I generally delete crap comments as soon as I find them, but book blogs don't bother me as much since I'm interested in what else is out there. However, as soon as the stuff starts to sound spammy, it's gone.