A Book Recommended By.....

I read books that my sister, brother, husband and good reader friends recommend. I read books that my husband brings back from airports or that my dad leaves as a gift by my bed stand. I have read books on long Classic lists that they publish at New Years or in a literature class syllabus. I most frequently will read a book whose review I find and liked in LeMonde Livres (the bi-weekly book section).

I rarely read books that are recommended in fashion or glamor magazines. Books that are derived from movies. In this special case, in this very rare case, I did buy a book that was recommended in a fashion magazine. And this book is not derived from a movie, but like a John Irving book, has been adapted as a film that has won great acclaim, notably at Cannes this year.

It is in vogue for fashion magazines to dedicate a page or perhaps two to a famous person, usually a glamorous and fashionable person who would display his/her taste about makeup, designers, scents, creams, shoes, favorite restaurants and sometimes his or her favorite books and music. Catch me reading the collage made for non other than Boy George! Yes, he was the one who recommended Lionel Shriver's "We need to talk about Kevin".

Last time I listened to BoyGeorge, it was certainly malgres moi, as someone whose adolescence fell absurdly in the 1980s. Three decades later, curiosity and recognition of a ghost from the past made me read his list of favorite things. I was getting a manicure and it fit the futility of the moment.

The reason he convinced me was for a single reason. He stated that his favorite book ever was Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, which happens to be one of my favorites. He then said that Let's talk about Kevin was a book that people kept recommending until he discovered it and was flabbergasted.

If you juxtapose any book to Midnight's Children, you will get me to buy it and read it. I have now completed one fifth of Boy George's favorite book. It is a deep book, even though I started by dismissing it as such. It also happens to be written by a woman, who chose a man's pseudonym (as George Sand had).

It turns out Boy George is an intellectual behind all that makeup, gloves and dreadlocks. Yes I know he has cut them since!

Karma karma Karma kameleon.....
His second favorite book has nothing light and happy to it.

P.S: I googled Kate Moss after I read the introduction to the novel. There must be another Kate Moss out there, with wrinkles and a Phd, I thought. Could the model have been chosen to introduce the book? Well, it was recommended by Boy George!